Southwest flood damage estimates are hundreds of millions for New Mexico alone

Intense rainstorms linked to a very active El Niño-driven Pacific hurricane season have left thousands of people in the Four Corners states displaced or facing massive cleanups from flooding.

The adjoining states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona all saw substantial flooding last week, and damage assessments are just starting to trickle in from cities, towns and some of the most remote territory in the continental U.S.

The northern New Mexico city of Farmington was hit particularly hard after torrential rains fell on the San Juan mountains in Colorado, sending floodwaters down the San Juan River that passes through Farmington on its way to Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border.

San Juan River saw some of biggest surges

Small towns all along the river, from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, to Bloomfield, New Mexico and Bluff, Utah all saw historic flooding and are now assessing recovery challenges.

About 46,000 people live in Farmington, long a center for coal, oil and natural gas production. It's also an important hub for the northeast side of the Navajo reservation, which sprawls across three states.

Farmington residents started getting evacuation notices on their phones as early as Wednesday night.

"My sister was notified on Thursday that she had to get out," said Connie Gooch, who has lived in Farmington for more than 65 years.

Gooch's sister owns a house in a suburban neighborhood near the San Juan River.

"Every year she goes through this," Gooch said. "The river starts rising, and she starts making sandbags to put around. But this year it was so fast she didn't have time to do that."

According to National Weather Service data from a river gauge in Farmington, the San Juan grew 13 times larger in just 36 hours, late last week.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, the river was about 3.5 feet high. By Friday, it was 14 feet high, flooding neighborhoods across the city, and possibly setting a record for the highest water ever recorded in the city.

This even after the Navajo Reservoir upstream from Farmington was able to mostly contain water rushing down from the mountains. But downstream of the reservoir, flood surges into the city came from two normally dry tributaries, Gobernador Canyon and Cañon Largo.

"This is a catastrophic flood of historic proportions," said Devon Neeley, San Juan County's public information officer.

"This river got wider than we have ever seen it in our lifetimes."

From Colorado peaks to Arizona deserts

Similar reports are coming in from the other side of the San Juan mountains in Colorado.

"It's nothing like most of us have seen before," said Tyler Schmidt, captain of the fire and rescue team in the small town of South Fork, Colo. on the banks of the Rio Grande. "We had several neighborhoods that were under two to three feet of water."

Colorado Public Radio's Dan Boyce reports that responders' immediate priorities are lifting final evacuation orders as waters recede. Damaged bridges need to be assessed. Well water all down the Rio Grande's path in the San Luis valley needs to be tested.

Other drinking water impacts from the storm include sewage spills from flooded treatment plants in Sedona, Arizona and other locations. KNAU reports extensive damage on the Hopi reservation.

The Hopi reservation is surrounded by the Navajo reservation, where there have also been reports of rescues, washed out roads and flooding of historic proportions.

San Juan County, New Mexico's Neeley said fire crews, police officers, National Guard troops, and even out-of-state swift water teams rescued between 200 and 300 county residents.

"We have pulled people out of vehicles stuck in running washes. We have pulled people by helicopter off of rooftops," Neeley said. "We have used not only high-clearance vehicles from the National Guard, but amphibious vehicles because the water is so high. It's been a lot."

Some relief in the works

By Sunday, the rain had eased, river levels were falling, and some residents started returning home to assess flood damage.

Connie Gooch delivered tarps and other materials to her sister's house.

"The river was up four feet in her house," she said.

She found a neighborhood full of people moving furniture out of their homes and piling demolition debris in their front yards.

"There were trucks and cars all over the place," Gooch said. "There was a guy in front of me carrying a loaded trailer full of sheet rock that they'd chipped out of somebody's house."

But officials want the thousands of evacuated residents to stay out for now.

"The public is anxious to get back in; we recognize that, we're sympathetic to that," said San Juan County Fire Chief David Vega at a public briefing Sunday. "Now that the swift water component is out of the way, that exposes a whole new set of hazards for us," Vega added.

Public officials are concerned about hazards like raw sewage and damaged gas lines, live power lines, and the floodwater itself.

"The water is not healthy," Vega said. "Stay out of the water. Gas, diesel, pesticides, fertilizer, these are not things that you want on your clothes."

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham visited San Juan County on Monday.

Grisham said that the damage to infrastructure alone could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

"I hope we're only spending 30 to 40 million (dollars)," Lujan Grisham said, responding to recovery cost estimates from San Juan County manager Mike Stark.

"We think this could be closer to between 200 and 300 million (dollars)," Lujan Grisham said. "The environmental issues and the road issues and infrastructure issues alone, really are expensive."

Monday night, Governor Lujan Grisham released an announcement, stating that the federal government has "partially granted" New Mexico's request for an emergency declaration in response to the regional flooding. Yesterday, Lujan-Grisham signed executive orders making $8.25 million more in state funding available for flood response.