Has a hurricane ever hit Arizona? Try 3: Remnants of hurricanes Lorena, Rosa, Norbert
Hurricanes in Arizona? Longtime residents here are fond of pointing out that the Grand Canyon State doesn't get the kinds of natural disasters common to other states.
But hold on. Hilary is not the first large hurricane to molest Arizona. In the last 10 years, the remnants of three other hurricanes dumped record-breaking loads of rain on the state. None were still named storms, but they left widespread havoc, just the same.
Over the years, these still-powerful storms spawned tornados, flash flooding, widespread power outages, flooded neighborhoods and one of them turned parts of Interstate 10 into a lake of floating cars.
Hurricane Lorena in 2019 brought widespread flooding, tornado warning
Most recently, in late September 2019 widespread rain, flooding, and a tornado followed with the remnants of Pacific Hurricane Lorena.
On Sept. 23, the first day of fall, heavy rains hit the southeast Valley and dumped up to 2 inches in Apache Junction. Multiple streets were flooded, leaving motorists stranded. The rain moved throughout the day across Maricopa and southern Yavapai counties, leaving behind up to 2 inches in certain cities.
A tornado warning was issued in the afternoon by the Phoenix National Weather Service for the New River area, after low-lying clouds spawned a funnel cloud. New River resident Mindee Abdullah captured video of the cloud on her cellphone. The warning expired after the tornado failed to touch down.
Most of central Phoenix and other nearby cities received less than an inch of rain.
Hurricane Hilary updates: Sky Harbor sees flight cancellations, delays
Valley fire departments conducted multiple water rescues to help stranded motorists. In Surprise, fire crews safely rescued about 120 children in a school bus northwest of Loop 303.
At the end of the day, incoming flights to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were delayed by up to 1 1/2 hours because of the severe weather. The storm also knocked out power to about 8,400 customers from central to east Phoenix and in parts of Scottsdale.
Hurricane Rosa in 2018 ushers in a wet October in Phoenix
A year earlier, in October 2018, one of the rainiest days in Arizona was recorded after 2.36 inches of rain were dumped onto Phoenix. The rainfall made it the wettest October in the city.
Heavy rain began late Oct. 1 and carried into early the next day, with 1.53 inches reported at Sky Harbor by 8:22 a.m.
There was flash flooding most of the day throughout areas of the Valley near washes and drains, resulting in highways and streets being closed. The Indian Bend Wash in Scottsdale had floodwaters run to Tempe Town Lake's west side dam.
The rainfall affected motorists' commutes. Several water rescues had to be made by Valley fire crews, and the Arizona Department of Public Safety had recorded more than 80 Valley freeway wrecks.
Several schools were closed due to the rain and power outages, including the Maricopa County Community College District.
The rainfall between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 combined marked it the third-rainiest October in Phoenix history at 2.68 inches. This beat the 1957 record of 2.66 inches.
Hurricane Norbert in September 2014 was 'one for the record books'
In the middle of the night on Sept. 8, 2014, the skies opened up across metro Phoenix, as the remnants of Hurricane Norbert passed through.
People across the Valley were woken by the noise of the tempest and its unrelenting gales and hard rain, which slammed in sideways. On and on it went.
By daybreak, people were seeing images of a stretch of eastbound I-10 at 43rd Avenue inundated. Water rose above the hoods of cars, some of which floated away. Dozens of motorists abandoned their cars in the lake that was an interstate.
Other freeways flooded, too: U.S. 60 in parts of Tempe, Mesa, and along Grand Avenue, State Route 51, and Interstate 17 were hit the hardest. Engineers at the Arizona Department of Transportation reported that some of the storm pumps on the older freeways just couldn't keep up with massive volumes of water.
And massive they were. Parts of Mesa recorded 4.6 inches of rain in six hours. The highest rainfall total was recorded at 6 inches in Chandler, making the storm a 1,000-year event, meteorologists later reported. One said it "was one for the record books."
By late morning it had pretty much stopped raining, and some freeways were returning to normal. But then, hours after the last drops had fallen, and under blue skies, the Emerald Acres neighborhood in southern Mesa, near the U.S. 60 freeway, began flooding. Water climbed over the doorsteps and into around 200 homes. Residents reported walking in 6 inches of water, which ruined their carpets and furniture.
It was caused when an ADOT drainage canal alongside U.S. 60 started backing up, filling a retention basin and flooding Emerald Park. It turned out that somebody had improperly locked an overflow channel gate, which was used to regulate the flow of storm waters in the runoff canal. Crews couldn't open it, and ultimately, they brought in heavy machinery to break it open.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Has a hurricane ever hit Arizona? Yes, here's what to know
