Flooding closes bridges and drives evacuations across the Four Corners, with more rain on the way

The San Juan River kept rising on Sunday. The National Weather Service office in Grand Junction warned of catastrophic flooding along the river between Four Corners and Mexican Hat, Utah, and forecasters expected the water to crest around Aneth, Montezuma Creek and Bluff on Sunday afternoon and evening. The US 160 bridge over the San Juan River near the Arizona and Colorado border stayed closed to traffic, the Navajo Police Department said. The Montezuma Creek Bridge closed as well. Navajo emergency crews worked through the day to evacuate residents in Bluff, Montezuma Creek and Aneth, in southeastern Utah, and police warned people who had left not to return home. The weather service told people not to cross the river, because low water crossings were flooded and could be impassable.

Shelters opened at Aneth Community School in Montezuma Creek and at San Juan High School in Blanding, Utah. Responders ran a command post at the Aneth school. In Lower Moencopi, a Hopi village near Tuba City in northern Arizona, flooding displaced as many as 10 families. Some residents fled with only the clothes they were wearing, a fellow resident said. Tina Honyumptewa has raised $13,000 toward a $70,000 goal to support the village, where floodwater rose beyond major flood stage and covered fields, roads and homes. Hopi officials reported damage to homes, roads, bridges and utilities across several communities.

The rain behind the flooding picked up on Wednesday and built through the week. More than 5 inches fell in places, as of October 25, and water surged from the Colorado mountains into the New Mexico and Arizona desert. Hundreds of homes remained evacuated and without electricity on Saturday. Around Farmington, New Mexico, the flooding affected some 2,000 people in and around a city of 46,000. Officials lost count of the rescues. At least a couple hundred people needed help, some of them stranded on rooftops, and New Mexico National Guard helicopters flew 11 hoist operations, each lifting as many as eight people to safety. Navajo police reported 20 overnight rescue operations in northwestern New Mexico, focused on Farmington and west toward Shiprock. San Juan County, New Mexico, had no official count of damaged homes or evacuees on Sunday. County spokesperson Devin Neeley said he was not aware of any loss of life. "It's a pretty active disaster zone," he said. "We're not on the downswing by any means."

The water left damage that will outlast the crest. About 4 feet of water flooded the home of San Juan County Sheriff Shane Ferrari. Floodwater left mud and silt contaminated with sewage where waste plants failed. In Shiprock, flooding disrupted the wastewater treatment plant, and the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority discharged untreated wastewater into the San Juan River to keep sewage from backing up into homes and businesses. The authority said the drinking water system runs separately, was unaffected and remained safe. It urged Shiprock sewer customers to use less water, and it told people to keep children, pets and livestock away from the river and the floodwater. Most of southern Shiprock had power back by Saturday, though four downed utility poles had cut electricity and some homes and businesses still waited.

In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis added Conejos County to the list of places eligible for disaster help. Crews reopened the Million Dollar Highway, US 550 between Durango and Ouray, after they repaired water damage, while US 160 northeast of Pagosa Springs remained closed. The flooding is the latest in two months of on and off heavy rain, fed by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific, that followed months of drought. Deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and parts of New Mexico earlier in the same pattern. The weather service kept a flood watch over much of the Four Corners through Sunday, and local officials warned that saturated ground means the next round of showers can flood the same ground again with little warning. Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe put the position plainly at a news conference. "This is not over, and we need you to monitor alerts."