A drier day with a few possible mountain showers is forecast for the El Paso-Juárez area and Southern New Mexico recovering fromheavy rains from the remnants of Hurricane Polo.
The tropical moisture has moved out of the region, which will have temperatures 5-to-8 degrees cooler than normal on Wednesday, Sept. 30, the National Weather Service El Paso forecast.
The El Paso Fire Department responded to 30 weather-related emergencies Tuesday, Sept. 29, with the majority taking place in the Northeast, EPFD spokesman Hector Gonzalez said in a message. Those emergencies were:
- 11 utility/electrical (several poles were broken in the Rushing Road and Fairbanks Drive area in the Northeast)
- 9 fallen trees
- 4 roadway damage, pothole or sinkhole
- 4 vehicles in floodwater
- 2 structural hazard/damage
There were only two weather-related calls overnight Tuesday into Wednesday — a fallen tree and residential flooding/damage, Gonzalez said.
Drowning in Juárez retention pond
While El Paso was mostly unscathed from
major damage from the rainstorms, Juárez was coping with flooded and collapsed streets, damaged homes and at least two rain-related deaths in recent days.
After a 15-hour search, Juárez firefighters recovered the body of a man on Tuesday who is believed to have drowned after falling into a retention pond on Cerrada de Burdeos Oriente street in the Zaragoza area near the Zaragoza-Ysleta border bridge, a city news release stated.
It was the second possible rain-related death in Juárez in recent day following an electrocution last Friday night, Sept. 25, Chihuahua state civil protection authorities reported.
Juárez police attended to 130 rain-related emergency calls throughout the day Tuesday, including rescuing a mother and daughter after a porch collapsed at a home and a dog that had been swept away by a flash flood, authorities said.
Southern New Mexico deals with flooding
In the Hatch Valley of Doña Ana County, an evacuation order that had been issued for the small communities Hatch, Salem, Garfield and Placitas was lifted late Tuesday night, Sept. 29, after weather conditions improved.
The evacuation order remained in place for the community of Rincon because of standing floodwaters and the area was unsafe, the county stated at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday. Rincon is near Hatch along Interstate 25 north of Las Cruces.
The New Mexico National Guard is involved in rescue operations in the area, including utilizing a military tactical vehicle to drive into deep water to rescued a woman in a vehicle trapped in a flooded arroyo near Hatch on Tuesday.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Floods destroy, claim life as El Paso, Juárez region recovers
