Much of the mud and silt left by flooding is sewage-contaminated
A rain-soaked swath of the southwestern United States braced on Sunday for another round of potentially heavy showers and thunderstorms after days of rain forced evacuations and water rescues in the Four Corners region last week. The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of the area, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet, even as local officials forecast that swollen rivers would recede further after they surged since rains picked up on Wednesday.
In San Juan County, New Mexico, Sheriff Shane Ferrari said about 4 feet (1 meter) of water flooded his home and described the area’s situation as stable on Sunday, while he and other residents were trying to clean up and deal with damage. County spokesperson Devin Neeley said the county did not have official numbers on damage to homes or the number of people evacuated, and that he was not aware of any loss of life.
Neeley said the floodwaters were receding but had left mud and silt, much of it contaminated with sewage because of failures at waste plants. Power outages were affecting multiple areas, and it would probably be a few days until residents got their power back on, he said. “It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said. “We’re not on the downswing by any means.”
The forecast came after two months of on-and-off heavy rain caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific, following months of drought across the region. Other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and areas of New Mexico.
One photograph, credited to Emilija Jefremova/Reuters, showed people traversing a cordoned-off street in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, as floodwaters from the San Juan River rose on Friday.
Another photograph, credited to Landon Christensen/AP, showed flooding in the Gould Wash drainage watercourse in Hurricane, Utah, on Thursday.