Unusually heavy rain over the weekend flooded parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah in the Four Corners region, forcing evacuations, prompting swift-water rescues and altering some Election Day plans.
One person died in Flagstaff, Arizona: 73-year-old Williams Singavarapu, who was found on Monday about 12 hours after falling into floodwater on Sunday. Police suspect a second Flagstaff death is weather-related.
In Pagosa Springs, Colorado, the San Juan River reached 16.81 feet late Sunday, flooding downtown streets, after an evacuation order had been reimposed on Saturday. Colorado arranged alternative voting plans for evacuated residents, including mail-ballot replacements at any vote centre statewide; in-person ballots outside a voter’s home county were limited to statewide races.
Evacuations were also ordered along the San Juan River in New Mexico and on the Navajo Nation, the village of Chama in New Mexico was evacuated and cut off by road closures, Sedona ordered residents near Oak Creek to leave, and swift-water rescues took place in Tucson.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs declared a statewide state of emergency on Monday. More than 20 trillion gallons of water fell on the Four Corners states and Nevada in the past two weeks, according to calculations by former NOAA chief scientist Ryan Maue.
Source: Associated Press
