FLAGSTAFF, Arizona – Flagstaff was hit a third time on July 16 by a flood that sent debris onto the streets and forced them to close.
Governor Doug Ducey issued a declaration of emergency for Coconino County on July 16, providing up to $ 200,000 to respond to flash floods in the Flagstaff area. Local residents reported currents of water flowing through their courtyards and on the city’s busiest streets.
The city of Flagstaff and Coconino County have opened a joint emergency response center. Some of the flooding occurred in neighborhoods shaded by a mountain that burned in 2019.
“Severe flooding following forest fires poses dangerous challenges for communities in northern Arizona,” Ducey said on Friday. “The flood is causing road closures, damaging property, and endangering the safety of Arizona people.”
The National Weather Service issued a spate of weather reports on July 16 warning of the potential of flooding across the state. In many places there was more rain in the past month than in the entire 2020 monsoon season, which ran from mid-June to September, said the weather service.
“Torrential rains” flooded State Highway 87 between Payson and Pine on Friday night about 70 miles southeast of Flagstaff, the service said. The city of Flagstaff said many sections of its urban path system were damaged and impassable due to the recent flooding.
The service also issued a July 16 dust alert on the southwestern edge of Phoenix, where winds exceeding 40 miles per hour created a wall of dust that reduced visibility to less than a quarter of a mile over an area that forms part of U.S. Interstates 10 and 8 included.
At least one death has been attributed to floods. Grand Canyon National Park identified a woman on July 16 who was found in the cold Colorado River after a flash flood hit her rafting group’s trip.
Rebecca Copeland, 29, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was found on July 15 near the camp where the group of 30 settled the night before, park officials said. Much of the group’s belongings were washed away after a torrent of water streamed through a ravine above them.
Park spokeswoman Kaitlyn Thomas said a handful of people were “severely hit by the rubble”. A handful of them had to be evacuated from the canyon by air, the park said.
Another commercial rafting group found Copeland and another woman who was initially reported missing. Thomas said she did not know if this group was actively looking for the missing at the time.
“I’m confident the river community knew something was going on, but I can imagine they were looking,” she said.
The National Park Service and Coconino County’s inspector are investigating the incident, the park said in a statement.
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