Floods swamp the arid Southwest, forcing evacuations and altering Election Day plans

Unusually heavy rain sent a massive amount of water surging through flood-weary parts of the Southwest on Monday, forcing hundreds to evacuate and keeping swift-water rescue teams busy.

One person died in the flooding, and police suspect a second death was weather-related. The National Weather Service estimated up to 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain could fall through Monday across the Four Corners region — where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah meet — as the phenomenon stoked by warming Pacific waters known as El Niño disrupts weather patterns.

More than 20 trillion gallons of rain have fallen on the Four Corners states and Nevada in the past two weeks, according to calculations by former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue.

Officials had warned of “potentially catastrophic” flooding in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a town of about 2,000 nearly wiped out in 1911 when the San Juan River crested at approximately 17.8 feet (5.4 meters). The river reached 16.81 feet (5.1 meters) late Sunday night, flooding downtown streets, before receding Monday, the weather service said.

The Colorado Secretary of State's office arranged alternative voting plans for evacuated or stranded residents of the town. Other elections officials had urged voters to cast ballots before the storms hit.

More rivers rise, forcing more evacuations

Residents had to leave their homes along the Animas River in southwestern Colorado, where Durango police Chief Brice Current said authorities were checking Monday on those who rode out the flooding at home.

"There's still a lot of people stranded,” Current said.

Greg Ewing joined volunteers helping to dig several feet of mud out of neighbors' yards. “That's the cool thing about Durango. It's a really strong community. Everyone comes together,” he said.

The Animas River was closed to kayaks and other recreational watercraft, and Current warned that sewage and chemicals in the water could make people sick. Riverside trails and foot bridges were also closed.

Evacuations also were ordered along the San Juan River in New Mexico, which officials warned was still rising and could crest Tuesday through Wednesday. The village of Chama, New Mexico, was also evacuated and cut off by road closures. Farther south, the rising Jemez River made campgrounds and fishing sites inaccessible.

Dry creek beds turned to raging torrents in Arizona

Record rainfall was reported across Arizona, including 7.3 inches (18.5 centimeters) over two days at Workman Creek, a wilderness area near Phoenix.

Flagstaff totaled 5.15 inches (13 centimeters) over two days, contributing to its wettest Nov. 1 ever recorded. The city typically has fewer than a handful of days per year of rain exceeding 1 inch (2.5 centimeters), said meteorologist Jennifer Tate with the NWS Weather Prediction Center.

“What really stood out to me was that this wasn’t localized. It was a very broad system that brought a lot of rain to a lot of places,” Tate said Monday.

A man was seen falling into fast-moving floodwaters pouring into a drainage tunnel in Flagstaff, where rain fell nearly nonstop Sunday. Police said the body of Williams Singavarapu, 73, of New York, was discovered Monday about 12 hours later and 15 blocks from where he disappeared.

A second man was found dead Monday in a drainage area, Flagstaff police said, adding the death appeared to be weather-related, pending an official determination on the manner and cause of death. His identity was not immediately released.

In Sedona, officials ordered residents near Oak Creek to evacuate Sunday as floodwaters trapped several people in their homes. Heavy rain washed out part of a main highway between Flagstaff and Sedona, mangling guard rails and littering the road with boulders and trees.

Swiftwater rescues also were being conducted in Tucson, where weather service meteorologist Aaron Hardin said “we are getting two or three months of rain in a span of a couple of days.”

And manhole covers were popping up in the Pinetop-Lakeside area of central Arizona, where residents reported sewage backing up into homes because of flooding, the region’s sanitary district announced.

Swaths of southern Utah are inundated

Ryan Benally spent the weekend building dirt berms to divert floodwaters from his parents’ home on the Navajo Nation near Montezuma Creek, Utah. So far, the barriers have held, though parts of their small cattle ranch are under water.

Benally said his parents, both in their 60s, have lived in the area all their lives and have never seen flooding this severe.

“These storms have been one after another after another,” Benally said. “It’s compounding in ways people out here just weren’t prepared for.”

Benally, a professor at Utah State University, has been coordinating deliveries of bottled water, waterproof boots, toiletries and other supplies to shelters. Families who stayed at home were increasingly difficult to reach, he said, because emergency access routes for some remote residents have washed out, leaving some virtually cut off.

Flooding in a Colorado town affects Election Day voting plans

Residents of Pagosa Springs who received a ballot by mail can get replacements at any vote center in Colorado, the secretary of state's office said.

Voters who cast in-person ballots outside their home county can only do so for statewide races, but mail ballots can be returned to any drop box or vote center in Colorado by 7 p.m. on Election Day, the office said.

Pagosa Springs had just lifted an evacuation order from previous flooding last week, only to reimpose it Saturday.

Deanna Chiappetta and her boyfriend were hunkered down Monday at their home in the Aspen Springs subdivision just outside town. While their property was spared from flooding, bridges leading out of their neighborhood remained impassable because the creek they cross was overflowing.

“We were contemplating going to Denver last night, but we decided, no, we’ll stay,” Chiappetta said in a phone interview. “And now we’re stuck on Aspen Springs Island. That’s what we’re all calling it.”

She said they were fortunate. Campers that some neighbors lived in were washed away, and floodwaters knocked away much of the foundation of a local riverside museum.