Parts of the Southwest's Four Corners region remained under a flood warning Monday as some saturated neighborhoods began cleaning up, assessing damage and watching out for water that could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage.
Flooding caused by excessive rainfall happened Monday along the San Juan River in parts of the Four Corners region, the meeting point of Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. The area has experienced unusually heavy
rain since Wednesday that caused rivers to surge, flooding homes and forcing water rescues. Storms led to a tornado that touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on Saturday night.
One flooding-related death was reported in Santa Fe on Saturday during a water rescue of a family that had attempted to cross a flooded arroyo in their vehicle, the county sheriff's office said. A father and child were able to get onto land, but a female passenger was swept away by the current and was found dead a mile away, the office said.
By Monday morning, the San Juan River was 1 1/2 feet (45.7 centimeters) above the flood stage of 23 feet (7 meters), the National Weather Service said. It was expected to crest to 31 feet (9.4 meters) later Monday, then fall below flood stage by Tuesday morning.
This compares to Sept. 10, 1927, when the river crested at 32 feet (9.7 meters), the weather service said.
Some residents in one community along the river, Bluff, Utah, were evacuated over the weekend but were allowed to return early Monday.
Returning residents and businesses should use caution as several properties were still flooded, county officials said.
“Stay out of the San Juan River,” the weather service said. “Water levels remain elevated, and possible sewage contamination poses additional health risks.”
In the Farmington area of New Mexico, local officials said swollen rivers were receding, but that many people remained evacuated and hundreds were without power.
San Juan County, New Mexico, did not have official figures on the number of homes damaged or how many people were evacuated, spokesperson Devin Neeley told The Associated Press.
“It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Major General Miguel Aguilar of the New Mexico National Guard planned to visit the county Monday to survey damage and meet with affected residents.
Officials in the hard-hit counties urged patience and caution. Water could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, and gas and propane lines could be broken, among other hazards.
“The public is anxious to get back in,” San Juan County Fire & Rescue Chief David Vega acknowledged at a news conference Sunday. “But I want the public to know there are still hazards out there.”
Undersheriff Cory Tanner said officials were going from house to house to check for hazards — a process that could take days to complete.
Zach and Abigail Flatt started putting together go-bags after receiving evacuation orders on their phones Thursday evening. Their home in Bloomfield, New Mexico, sits on the San Juan River.
“In 30 or 40 minutes it had jumped about 4 feet,” Zach recalled Sunday. “After I saw that big jump, and how close it was to going over the banks, I said we've got to get out.”
By the time the family was loaded into the car, water was coming up over the tires. They found a hotel room with their two children, ages 2 and 4, and watched via webcams as at least 18 inches (.45 meters) of water inundated their property, washing away 22 of their 24 chickens.
“We watched stuff just float away, off the porch into the front yard,” Zach said.
In the Shiprock, New Mexico, area of the Navajo Nation, wastewater facilities and water holding ponds were damaged by flooding, causing sewage releases into the San Juan River, according to Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Shiprock District Manager Wilfred Franklin Jr.
New Mexico's congressional delegation on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to declare an emergency for the state to release federal assistance funding.
In Colorado, teams created maps of some counties to help identify affected roads, road closures, impacted areas and evacuation zones.
The flooding is just the latest from two months of on-and-off heavy rain in the region caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific. After months of drought, other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and other areas of New Mexico.
Forecasters said El Niño, the natural and temporary warming of parts of the Pacific, was likely to blame for the latest storm's unusually heavy rainfall.
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Associated Press writers Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
