Heavy rain across northern Arizona caused rivers and creeks to swell dramatically this weekend, including Oak Creek, the Verde and Salt rivers, and the San Juan River in the Four Corners region.
In Sedona, emergency crews rescued residents from their homes over the weekend as rainwater flooded the community.
Tribal communities, including those on the Hopi and Navajo reservations, dealt with the latest onslaught of washed out roads and flooded homes after a previous storm system in late October also caused damage.
Floodwaters closed roads in communities like Flagstaff, Prescott and parts of the Verde Valley. The City of Flagstaff discouraged motorists from traveling on Sunday, writing in a press release that emergency response crews were operating at capacity. The Rio de Flag, an ephemeral stream that runs through Flagstaff, swept through town with enough streamflow to accommodate kayakers.
Rising water levels in Oak Creek put business owners that operate near its banks at risk. Rainfall transformed the typically mild riparian waterway into a frothing muddy current.
“It's just this really dark brown churning river, and it's moving really quickly,” said Jenny Kittredge, who manages Forest Houses Resort in Oak Creek Canyon. “It's bringing a lot of trees and debris with it. We can hear trees as they crash against other trees.”
Kittredge said her property hadn’t been damaged by the rising water level yet, but that as of Sunday afternoon, the creek was a few feet below the deck of the lowest structure on her property.
“It was the highest I have ever seen it in my 33 years here,” she added.
Forest Houses Resort does not have flood insurance, Kittredge said, because it would be cost prohibitive. The last time the creek flowed at this level was in 1993, which severely damaged homes and crops in northern Arizona.
Kittredge’s hotel sits right next to land the Pocket Fire burned over the summer. That wildfire, plus this flooding, has hurt her hotel economically, as well as other businesses in the area.
She said she knew there was a risk of post-fire flooding across the Pocket Fire’s burn scar.
“We've already seen some cancellations, and of course we are canceling people right now because it’s not safe at the moment,” Kittredge said. “It definitely seems like this year it's just sort of one thing after the other. Just as we were sort of getting back on our feet after the whole fire, it's the flooding.”
The National Weather Service expected water levels in Oak Creek to begin receding by Monday. The San Juan River in Shiprock, New Mexico on the Navajo Nation is expected to rise from Monday afternoon through Tuesday.
