A rain-soaked part of the U.S. southwest suffered renewed flooding as New Mexico crews navigated evacuated neighborhoods Sunday for dead animals, downed power lines and other hazards left by receding floodwaters and at least one tornado.
With more showers and thunderstorms, the National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for much of the Four Corners region – the meeting point of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The region has experienced unusually heavy rain since Wednesday which caused rivers to flood, flooding homes and requiring water rescue services.
“The soils are very saturated right now, so it won’t take much rain for at least the small creeks and creeks to overflow,” said Kris Sanders, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Grand Junction, Colorado.
A tornado touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, around 7 p.m. Saturday, and forecasters were trying to confirm whether tornadoes had also struck elsewhere in the state, said meteorologist Scott Overpeck of the weather service office in Albuquerque. He had no estimate of the damage.
Michelle Vialpando spotted a tornado from her patio in the Aldea neighborhood of Santa Fe, facing north toward Los Alamos. She had just gotten home from work and was going out to look at what she called “crazy” storm clouds when she noticed the tornado.
“I was quite surprised by what I saw and just started taking pictures,” Vialpando wrote Sunday via Facebook. “I was literally in shock. I’ve lived in Santa Fe my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Many remain evacuated and hundreds are without power in the Farmington area.
In the Farmington, New Mexico, area, local authorities said swollen rivers were receding, but 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 the number of people evacuated, but officials were not aware of any deaths, spokesman Devin Neeley told The Associated Press.
“It’s a pretty active disaster area,” he said.
About 4 feet of water flooded County Sheriff Shane Ferrari’s home. He said the situation in the area was stable on Sunday, but he and other residents were trying to clean up.
Floodwaters could be contaminated by chemicals and raw sewage, officials warn
Officials in the hard-hit county called for patience and caution on Sunday. Water could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, and gas and propane lines could be broken, among other hazards.
“The public is eager to come back,” San Juan County Fire and Rescue Chief David Vega said at a news conference. “But I want the public to know that there are still dangers.”
Undersheriff Cory Tanner said officials were going house to house checking for hazards — a process that could take days.
Zach and Abigail Flatt started packing backpacks after receiving evacuation orders on their phones Thursday evening. Their home in Bloomfield, New Mexico, sits on the banks of the San Juan River, and Zach walked along the banks watching the water rise at an alarming rate.
“Within 30 or 40 minutes, he had jumped about four feet,” Zach recalled Sunday. “After seeing that big jump and how close it was to going over the banks, I said we need to get out.”
By the time the family was loaded into the car, water was leaking onto the tires. They found a hotel room with their two children, ages 2 and 4, and watched via webcams as at least 18 inches (0.45 meters) of water flooded their property, washing away 22 of their 24 chickens.
“We saw things floating off the porch and into the front yard,” Zach said.
Authorities are still assessing the damage on the Navajo Nation and in a Colorado county.
In the Navajo Nation’s Shiprock, New Mexico, region, wastewater treatment facilities and water retention ponds were damaged by flooding, causing wastewater to discharge into the San Juan River, according to Wilfred Franklin Jr., shiprock district manager of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority.
New Mexico’s congressional delegation on Sunday urged President Donald Trump to declare a state of emergency for the state to release federal aid.
In Colorado, crews were conducting wellness checks and aerial surveys to understand the extent of flood damage in Archuleta County. It is still unclear how much damage was caused, but the sheriff, Mike Le Roux, described it as catastrophic. As of Sunday evening, no injuries or loss of life were reported, said Vicki Shaffer, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Incident Management Team.
The flood is just the last of two months of intermittent heavy rains in the region caused by tropical humidity coming from the Pacific. After months of drought, other deadly floods have recently hit the region. Grand Canyon and other areas of New Mexico.
Forecasters said El Niñothe natural and temporary warming of certain parts of the Pacific is probably the cause of the unusually heavy precipitation of the last storm.
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Associated Press writers Anna Wilder in Austin, Texas, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed.
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