Floodwaters recede across Southwest as residents begin cleanup

Officials expect Pagosa Springs repairs to take weeks or more

On Tuesday, receding floodwaters left communities across the Southwest covered in mud as residents in Colorado and New Mexico began digging out around damaged homes and businesses.

More than 20 trillion gallons of rain had fallen across the Four Corners states and Nevada in the previous two weeks, according to calculations by Ryan Maue, a former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The skies cleared Tuesday, but flood risks remained as the water moved through the dry landscape.

One person died in the floodwaters, and police suspected a second death was weather-related. Swift-water rescue teams remained busy as hundreds of evacuees returned to affected communities.

In Pagosa Springs, retired school teacher Jack Ellis surveyed damage along the San Juan River, which had gone through two rounds of severe flooding in recent weeks. “This is quite a disaster for everybody, especially in the low-lying areas,” Ellis said. “We dig in and dig out, and that’s what it’s going to take.” Officials said cleanup and repairs could take weeks or more, and walkways and bridges had collapsed or sustained heavy damage.

At one resort, the entrance was covered with a tarp, sandbags were stacked and a sign read “Love Pagosa.” Ellis said he hoped the federal government would help. “I hope the federal government helps out a little bit. I know we’re a blue state. I just hope that they come through because we all pay taxes and we all work for each other in a time like this,” Ellis said.

In Durango, about 60 miles west, Willow Bradner’s ranch-style home was surrounded by about two feet of mud. Nearly five feet of water from the overflowing Junction Creek poured inside at one point. “Our basement became a soup bowl,” she said.

Bradner, who runs a small custom closet and storage business with her husband, bought the property in 2024, and the basement had been a selling point. She and her husband had asked whether they needed flood insurance and were told they were outside the flood zone. The couple and their teenage daughter have been offered a place to stay through the end of the year and help from strangers armed with shovels. “The majority of our savings is in this house,” she said. “We have to dig deep and we have to rebuild.”

Officials in New Mexico’s San Juan County, where there had been a number of evacuations, said the major rivers, including the San Juan, Animas and La Plata, had all crested. The agency posted online Tuesday, “None are below flood stage, but will continue to recede,” and added, “We believe that the crest has passed on all rivers, but it will take 24-48 hours for floodwaters to recede.”

Some communities in Colorado and Utah made alternative Election Day voting plans because of the flooding. In Florida, downpours swamped parts of the state, and polling places changed in at least eight counties after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an emergency declaration.