Tuesday 3 November 2026
The Southwest flood toll grows: two dead in Flagstaff, two dead in Palm Bay, and the San Juan crest moving downstream toward Shiprock
The storm that flooded the Four Corners over the weekend has now killed at least four people, police in two states said on Tuesday. Flagstaff police identified Williams Singavarapu, 73, who was found dead early Monday after falling into floodwater on Sunday evening, and said a second man found dead in a Flagstaff stormwater drainage area on Monday morning appeared to have died from the weather, with the cause still under investigation. In Palm Bay, Florida, police told CNN that two deaths are linked to the flooding there, Joshua Bennett, 34, and Archie Richards, 78, as of November 3. The San Juan River at Pagosa Springs, which crested at 16.81 feet on Sunday, had fallen to 10.3 feet early Tuesday, and forecasters expected the crest to reach Shiprock, New Mexico, at near 20.5 feet on Tuesday.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs declared a statewide state of emergency on Monday. The state emergency operations reporting for Colorado, published by the Department of Public Safety on Tuesday, said 12 counties are affected, the Colorado National Guard had rescued more than 50 people and more than 20 dogs as of November 3, and the Piedra River bridge on US 160 west of Pagosa Springs lost its piers and will have to be rebuilt, with a temporary bridge planned. Wolf Creek Pass on US 160 stayed closed on Tuesday, and a safety closure remained in place in downtown Pagosa Springs.
The water is moving downstream now. The Animas River at Durango was back below flood stage on Tuesday morning. The San Juan at Farmington, New Mexico, peaked near 12 feet on Monday, and forecasters expected the river at Shiprock to crest near 20.5 feet on Tuesday, which is major flooding, and the river near Bluff, Utah, to crest just above flood stage late Wednesday or early Thursday, all as of November 3 forecasts from the National Weather Service. In Florida, the rain that fell on Sunday and Monday, 20 inches or more in the hardest hit parts of Brevard County, moved 23 polling places across the state, on top of the moves in the Southwest that this morning's news covered.
The storm itself has left the Southwest. Rain from the same system covered the central United States on Tuesday, and forecasters said the cross country storm will affect more than 35 states and about 120 million people by the end of the week, as of November 3, with a risk of severe storms and isolated tornadoes in the Mid South. A tornado was confirmed in Bossier Parish, Louisiana, on Tuesday. Cleanup in the flooded counties of Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico is expected to take weeks.
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