Hundreds of people lost power and were told to evacuate in the Four Corners area, emergency crews staged overnight rescues, and roads and bridges remained closed Saturday because of severe flooding in Colorado and New Mexico.
Authorities expected more rain Saturday in the region where the borders of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. Two months of heavy rains in the area ended a summer drought, and from Wednesday through Friday, a total of 4 inches (10 centimeters) fell on saturated ground, with another 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) possible Saturday.
“We may see some floodwaters receding, but there will be more rain, and the rivers are expected to rise again,” San Juan County, New Mexico, Emergency Management warned in a Facebook post Saturday.
The department said it staged 20 rescues in the Farmington and Shiprock, New Mexico, area, where 600 homes had been urged to evacuate and about 1,500 people were without power, local utilities reported.
A 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) stretch of U.S. Highway 64 west of Shiprock into the town was closed because of standing water on the roadway, the New Mexico Department of Transportation said. Standing water and flooding over a bridge over the San Juan River also closed a four-mile stretch of New Mexico 371 south of Farmington, the area's largest city, with about 46,000 residents.
The area has seen a week of severe weather in which rain swamped dozens of homes in Utah and tornadoes blew off roofs, knocked trees onto houses and downed power lines in Arizona. Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe called the flooding a “once in a generation” event during a Friday news conference.
In southern Colorado, flooding was even worse than forecast and a full 3 feet (1 meter) higher than a 100-year flood on the San Juan River only a year ago.
While parts of the Southwest are rocky with little vegetation and are naturally prone to flash flooding, the recent rains had saturated the ground and made widespread flooding more likely. The moisture was from the remnants of Pacific tropical systems that had come ashore, forecasters said.
