The rain cleared but the risk of flooding remained high Monday after the latest round of heavy downpours sent a massive amount of water into storm-weary areas of the southwest, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate as fast-water rescue teams remained busy.
Officials said cleanup and repair efforts could take weeks. One person died in floodwaters and police suspect a second death was caused by the weather.
The National Weather Service said isolated showers were still possible in the Four Corners region – where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet – as the phenomenon fueled by warming Pacific waters known as El Niño disrupts weather conditions.
Damage was extensive in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a town of about 2,000 nearly wiped out in 1911 when the San Juan River crested at about 17.8 feet (5.4 meters). The river reached 5.1 meters on Sunday evening, flooding downtown streets, before receding on Monday, the weather service said.
An entire house was lifted off its foundation and floated down the river before crashing onto a pedestrian bridge. A section of a highway bridge west of the city was “warped” under the raging waters, said Vicki Shaffer, spokeswoman for the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office.
Shaffer said first responders were searching for people who might be stranded, adding that “a few” rescues took place Monday, including at least one by helicopter.
“This will continue, as it did last week, until we are sure that everyone who was trapped by the floodwaters has been rescued,” she said.
Shaffer said the county does not have an estimate of the number of residents under evacuation orders and that the Colorado Department of Transportation is evaluating whether it is safe to reopen several closed bridges and roads.
Pagosa Springs had just lifted an evacuation order following previous flooding last week, only to reimpose it on Saturday.
More than 20 trillion gallons of rain fell on the Four Corners states and Nevada over the past two weeks, according to calculations by Ryan Maue, former chief scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The Colorado Secretary of State’s office has implemented alternative voting plans for residents evacuated or stranded in the city.
New rivers rise, forcing evacuations
Evacuations were ordered along New Mexico’s San Juan River, which authorities warned continued to rise and could peak Tuesday through Wednesday. The village of Chama, New Mexico, was also evacuated and isolated by road closures.
Residents were forced to leave their homes along the Animas River in southwest Colorado, where Durango Police Chief Brice Current said authorities were checking on Monday those who had survived flooding in their homes.
“There are still a lot of people stuck,” Current said.
Willow Bradner and her family have been staying in a hotel since their Durango home was flooded over the weekend.
“We went from ‘we’re going to be safe’ to ‘pack a backpack’ in 45 minutes,” she recalls. His basement is now full of water and the house is surrounded by more than 2 feet of mud.
On Monday, Greg Ewing was among about 200 community members who used excavators and skid steer loaders to remove mud in the Bradner neighborhood. “That’s the cool thing about Durango. It’s a really strong community. Everyone comes together,” Ewing said.
Dry Arizona creek beds transformed into raging torrents
Record rainfall was reported across Arizona, including 7.3 inches (18.5 centimeters) over two days in Workman Creek, a wilderness area near Phoenix.
Flagstaff totaled 5.15 inches (13 centimeters) over two days, contributing to the wettest November 1 on record. The city typically sees fewer than a handful of days a year where it rains more than an inch, said meteorologist Jennifer Tate of the NWS Weather Prediction Center.
“What really struck me was that it wasn’t localized. It was a very large system that brought a lot of rain to many places,” Tate said.
A man was seen falling into floodwaters and rushing into a drainage tunnel in Flagstaff, where rain fell almost non-stop on Sunday. Police said the body of Williams Singavarapu, 73, of New York, was discovered Monday about 15 blocks from where he went missing.
A second man was found dead in a drainage area Monday, Flagstaff police said, adding it appeared to be weather-related, pending an official determination on the cause of death.
In Sedona, floodwaters trapped several people in their homes and heavy rains washed out part of a highway.
Swiftwater rescues were also underway in Tucson, where weather service meteorologist Aaron Hardin said “we’re getting two or three months’ worth of rain in a matter of days.”
Parts of southern Utah are flooded
Ryan Benally spent the weekend building earthen berms to divert floodwaters from his parents’ home on the Navajo Nation near Montezuma Creek, Utah. So far, the barriers have held, even though parts of their small cattle ranch were underwater.
Benally, a professor at Utah State University, coordinates deliveries of bottled water, waterproof boots, toiletries and other supplies to the shelters. Families back home were increasingly difficult to reach, he said, as access routes for some distant residents were destroyed.
Benally said his parents, both in their 60s, have lived in the area their entire lives and have never seen flooding this bad.
“These storms came one after the other,” Benally said. “It’s getting worse in ways that people here just weren’t prepared for.”
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Weber reported from Los Angeles and Bynum from Savannah, Georgia. AP reporters Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire contributed; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Savannah Peters in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Gregory Bull in Durango, Colorado.
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