The U.S. 160 bridge over the San Juan River near the Arizona-Colorado border stayed shut on Oct. 25 during flooding in the Four Corners region, according to Navajo Police Department.
Police said the Montezuma Creek Bridge was closed too. In southeastern Utah, Navajo emergency crews were moving residents out of Bluff, Montezuma Creek and Aneth, according to a department post on Facebook.
The National Weather Service office in Grand Junction warned of catastrophic flooding along the San Juan River between Four Corners and Mexican Hat, Utah. The water was expected to crest around Aneth, Montezuma Creek and Bluff on Sunday afternoon and evening.
Northern Arizona took a hit as well. In Lower Moencopi, a Hopi village near Tuba City, flooding displaced as many as 10 families, and some residents left with only the clothes they were wearing, a fellow resident said.
Police told people who needed help leaving to call Montezuma Creek EMS at 435-651-3754. Shelters were open at Aneth Community School in Montezuma Creek and San Juan High School in Blanding, according to the department.
Residents looking for food help, shelter or other resources could call an incident command center at 928-730-8365, the Navajo Nation Council said in an Oct. 25 update.
Evacuated residents were told not to go back home yet. The weather service also told people not to cross the river, saying low-water crossings were flooded and might be impassable.
Responders set up a command post at Aneth Community School to run the flood response and evacuations, police said.
Hopi officials reported damage to homes, roads, bridges and utilities in several communities. Navajo police reported rescues and evacuations in neighboring New Mexico and Utah as well.
Most of southern Shiprock, New Mexico, had power back by Oct. 24, though some homes and businesses were still without electricity, according to the council’s summary of an incident command briefing. Four downed utility poles caused the outage, Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Shiprock District Manager Wilfred Franklin Jr. said.
In northwestern New Mexico, police said responders carried out 20 overnight rescue operations on Oct. 24, some involving more than one person. The work centered on Farmington and west toward Shiprock.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority said Oct. 25 that flooding had disrupted Shiprock’s wastewater treatment plant. Untreated wastewater was being discharged into the San Juan River so sewage would not back up into homes and businesses.
The utility said drinking water runs on a separate system. It was not affected and remained safe to use.
Shiprock sewer customers were asked to use less water, put off laundry, take shorter showers and run dishwashers less often. The authority also told people to stay away from the San Juan River and floodwater in the area and to keep children, pets and livestock away, warning the water could carry pathogens and other contaminants.
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