Day after massive rains, Arizonans hunker down to clean up

PHOENIX — A day after record rainfall swamped the Phoenix area and beyond, communities were cleaning up the mess Tuesday.

The
unprecedented showers dropped 3.29 inches for a single-day mark. Some areas got even more — Chandler reached 5.63 inches, Mesa 4.41 inches.

Rainwater flooded homes, businesses, streets and freeways over seven hours, much of it in the first three hours. That was too much rain in too little time. Joe Munoz with the Maricopa County Flood Control District said city planners will be looking at freeway and road pumps to try to minimize future flooding.

“That’s just a massive amount of water; like I tell people, there is good rain and bad rain,” Munoz said. “Good rain for us is if we get 7.2 inches of rain in the course of a year, but when you get five inches of rain in an hour and a half to three hours, we got some major issues here.”

The structures, levees and basins carried the water like they’re supposed to, he said.

“City planners will probably rethink the value and say, ‘OK, if we receive 5.6 (inches of) rainfall amounts in this period of time, what kind of pumps do we need to pump that kind of water out so it just doesn’t become a giant lake again?” Munoz said.

Despite the water management system behaving properly, numerous roads remained closed in both Maricopa and Pinal counties on Tuesday. Several began reopening throughout the day.

Dozens of residents had to spend the night away from home. Copper Canyon High School in Glendale was transformed into a Red Cross shelter.

Paul Marsch, a volunteer, said many people at the shelter weren’t prepared for the floods. He advised to always have an emergency kit ready to go.

Jenny Christopher of Mesa had an emergency generator that she had borrowed from her father-in-law. That allowed her family to remain in their basement home, despite a recommendation from police to evacuate.

“The water just happened so fast. It was on the street and then on our lawn. Each car that was passing by was pushing it another five-to-six feet further.”

More than 100 people in the neighborhood near U.S. 60 and Stapley Drive were encouraged to leave the area, where a water retention basin overflowed.

Transformers remain submerged under 10-20 feet of water so there is no electricity in the neighborhood. Salt River Project distributed ice to affected residents.

Christopher’s family got a reverse 911 around 8:30 p.m., informing them that their power would be shut off at 10:30 p.m.

With two children, puppies and a large fish tank, she and her husband were reluctant to pack up and go.

“We didn’t know how long the generator would last — it runs on gas,” Christopher said.

She had already made sandbags, using pillow cases and the sand from her children’s sandbox.

They don’t regret staying.

More rain was forecast for Tuesday.

KTAR’s Corbin Carson, Jim Cross and Cooper Rummell contributed to this report.