More flooding possible in Four Corners region after days of heavy rain

A rain-soaked swath of the Southwest U.S. braced for the possibility of additional flooding as crews in New Mexico scoured evacuated neighborhoods Sunday for dead animals, downed power lines and other hazards left behind by receding floodwaters. With more showers and thunderstorms in the forecast, the National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of the Four Corners region — the meeting point of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

The area has experienced unusually heavy rain since Wednesday that caused rivers to surge, flooding homes and forcing water rescues. “The soils are very saturated right now, so it’s not going to take much rain for at least the small creeks and streams to overflow,” said Kris Sanders, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Grand Junction, Colorado. In the Farmington area of New Mexico, local officials said swollen rivers were receding but that many people remained evacuated and hundreds were without power.

San Juan County, New Mexico, did not have official figures on the number of homes damaged or how many people were evacuated, but officials were not aware of any deaths, spokesperson Devin Neeley told The Associated Press. “It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said. “We’re not on the downswing by any means.” About 4 feet of water flooded the home of county Sheriff Shane Ferrari. He said the area’s situation was stable Sunday, but he and other residents were trying to clean up and deal with damage.

Officials in the hard-hit county urged patience and caution Sunday. Water could be contaminated with chemicals and raw sewage, and gas and propane lines could be broken, among other hazards. “The public is anxious to get back in,” San Juan County Fire & Rescue Chief David Vega acknowledged at a news conference. “We recognize that. We’re sympathetic to that.” “But I want the public to know there are still hazards out there,” he added. Undersheriff Cory Tanner said officials were going from house to house to check for hazards — a process that could take days to complete.

The flooding is just the latest from two months of on-and-off heavy rain in the region caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific. After months of drought, other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and other areas of New Mexico. Forecasters said El Niño, the natural and temporary warming of parts of the Pacific, was likely to blame for the latest storm’s unusually heavy rainfall. “It’s been more or less three or four days,” said Anthony Brown, lead meteorologist at the weather service office in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

“It’s pretty unusual.”