Flash flooding closes Arizona highways and forces evacuations — I-17 is back open, four state routes are still shut, and Pagosa Springs braces for a record San Juan River crest

Flash flooding closed Interstate 17 and several Arizona highways on Sunday and forced evacuations in Sedona, Camp Verde and parts of Gila County, as heavy rain fell on ground already saturated by a week of storms, according to The Arizona Republic on Nov. 1. The Arizona Department of Transportation shut down I-17 in both directions in northern Arizona during the day — northbound at State Route 179 and southbound at milepost 337 near the Flagstaff airport — before reopening it on Sunday afternoon. Four state highways were still closed with no estimated time to reopen.

Still closed on Sunday evening were State Route 89A between Sedona and Kachina Village, at mileposts 375 to 397; State Route 260 near Pinetop-Lakeside, at milepost 350; State Route 73 between Indian Pine and White River, at mileposts 357 to 351; and State Route 238 between Maricopa and Gila Bend, with rockfall reported across northern Arizona. The National Weather Service flood warning for Coconino and Yavapai counties, running until 8:30 p.m. Mountain time on Sunday, covered Interstate 17 between mile markers 290 and 318 after 2 to 4 inches of rain had fallen. Conditions are posted at az511.gov and on the AZ511 app.

Sedona was the first evacuation of the day. Flash flooding in Oak Creek Canyon triggered mass evacuation orders at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday for zones eight, nine and 10, covering the eastern side of the city along State Route 179 and Oak Creek, with evacuees directed to Sedona Red Rock High School. The Sedona Fire Department requested additional personnel for what it called an “excessive amount” of rescue operations, and Sedona Fire District Chief Ed Mezulis said crews from surrounding communities were coming in to assist as local responders handled multiple reports of residents trapped in their homes.

The evacuations spread through the day. Around noon, the Camp Verde Marshal’s Office ordered residents near the Verde River, West Clear Creek and Wet Beaver Creek to leave immediately. In Gila County, residents in parts of Gisela — Julie Trail, Old Meadow Lane, Windy Way east of Meadow Lane and Tonto Creek Drive — were told to evacuate to the Gisela Community Center, and residents at the Greenback Valley RV Park and the lower ends of the Lazy JR and Sleepy Hollow RV parks in Tonto Basin were placed on “go” status. Clarkdale residents near the river were asked to prepare to evacuate, and on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation, Cibecue Creek — above last week’s flood levels after more than 5 inches of rain — brought a mandatory evacuation effective at 6 a.m. on Sunday.

The flooding is the wet side of the same Pacific storm series that put Colorado’s San Juan passes under winter storm warnings this morning, as CDLWire reported. The National Weather Service had issued flood watches for nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado, western New Mexico and southern Nevada, with as much as 4 inches of rain possible through Monday. “It’s not going to take much rainfall to be impactful at all in some of these locations just because of how saturated they are,” said Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center. A Tucson weather service meteorologist put it plainly: the region is getting two or three months of rain in a couple of days.

In southwestern Colorado, the same system is driving a flood emergency on a corridor this site covered this morning for snow. Pagosa Springs sits on U.S. 160 below Wolf Creek Pass, and the San Juan River there was forecast to crest at more than 19 feet around 11 p.m. on Sunday — above the approximately 17.8 feet recorded in the devastating 1911 flood that wiped out most of the town at the time. “This is a potentially catastrophic flood event. Extensive damage is expected,” the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office said. Mandatory evacuations cover low-lying areas along the San Juan, Rio Blanco, Navajo and Piedra rivers, the county told residents on Sunday morning to leave now and not wait for the water to rise, and the county said it was bringing in additional search-and-rescue resources, including the Colorado National Guard. Town officials said the highway into Pagosa Springs would be shut to inbound traffic on Sunday afternoon, and State Highway 151 was already impassible near mile marker 27. Last week the river peaked at 15 feet, in flooding that destroyed roads and buildings and forced thousands of evacuations across the Southwest.

For drivers, the working map for Sunday night and Monday is this. Interstate 17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff is open again, but do not treat State Route 89A as an alternate — it is closed between Sedona and Kachina Village, and Routes 260, 73 and 238 are closed in eastern and central Arizona, all with no reopening estimate. Check az511 before rolling in Arizona and COtrip before U.S. 160 in Colorado, where one corridor now carries a river-flood emergency at Pagosa Springs and winter storm warnings above 10,000 feet. Flood warnings run through Sunday night in Arizona and through Monday morning on the San Juan River, and more rain is forecast through Monday. Never drive through flooded roads or washes: a few inches of running water can sweep away a car, and floodwater hides washed-out pavement underneath it.