More flooding hits Flagstaff's west side with week of rain ahead

Monsoon storms returned to Flagstaff Sunday afternoon causing extensive flooding near the Pipeline West and Museum Fire burn scars, areas that have already dealt with numerous bouts of extreme flooding so far this season.

Rain first began falling high up on the western channel of the Pipeline Fire burn scar around 11 a.m., according to Brian Klimowski, meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff.

"We had some pretty intense rainfall falling at 1 to 3 inches per hour up there with totals upwards of an inch and a half of rain estimated up on the Pipeline scar that flows into Schultz Creek," Klimowski said.

With 1.5 inches of rain recorded, this is the largest rain event so far this year for this side of the burn scar, he said.

Areas near Schultz Creek and Highway 180 quickly became inundated with flash flooding within an hour of when the rain began.

Shelter in place orders were first issued starting around noon for neighborhoods in the Pipeline West burn area including Mt. Elden Estates followed by Cheshire, Coconino Estates, Creighton Estates, Coyote Springs, Anasazi Ridge and along Highway 180.

Shortly thereafter, shelter in place orders were issued for the Museum Fire flood area including Paradise, Grandview and Sunnyside.

The Rio de Flag, which flows through the neighborhoods on the west side along Highway 180 and into downtown Flagstaff, overflowed from flood waters in the early afternoon, prompting yet another shelter in place order for residents nearby.

Countless sandbags and hand-dug trenches have become the primary mitigation efforts to address the immediate impact of the flood waters as they rush through properties and fill streets.

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A large trench dug by the Flagstaff Fire Department along with the help of residents on Stevanna Way helped to funnel some floodwaters from the street that was full of at least a foot of brown, debris-filled water by 2 p.m.

Mayor Paul Deasy posted videos online of the outflow from the trench along with the sitting water on the street, stopped in front of houses by walls of sandbags.

"This is the worst we've had it this year," Deasy said. "We had more debris than we previously have had in this circumstance, and more homes have faced internal flooding than we had in this area previously in the last month."

As of Monday evening, Coconino County received 14 reports of structures damaged by flooding, Deasy said, but there could be more incidents that just haven't been reported yet.

"Moisture across our region is only going to keep expanding over the coming days," said National Weather Service meteorologist Benji Johnson. "And that's going to help increase the chance for storms across all of northern Arizona at the same time."

The chance of rain again Monday is high in pretty much all parts of northern Arizona with the exception of the border with Utah, Johnson explained in the daily Monsoon Outlook report. Radar indicates that storms are likely to start in areas at higher elevations before moving south and west throughout the day.

Numerous storms with the potential for heavy rain and flash flooding are expected throughout the rest of the week, and areas that have so far remained relatively dry this season are likely to be impacted, he said.

Looking ahead at a week of potential storms, Johnson encouraged residents to continue following any instructions from the weather service, the city and emergency services.

"We'll all have to pay attention to the current watches and any warnings that go out," Klimowski said.

At last week's community meeting addressing flooding on the west side, officials urged all residents to enroll in Coconino County's Emergency Notification System at coconino.az.gov/ready to receive timely and often critical alerts as storms move through the area.

Flagstaff residents who want to assist in the recovery following these rain events are encouraged to help fill sandbags at the two self-fill stations located at the Schultz Y, at the intersection of Schultz Road and Mt. Elden Lookout Road, as well as Francis Short Pond.

"People are helping to fill sandbags so that residents in the affected areas can pick them up," Deasy said.

As the community braces for the remaining month and a half of monsoon season, the city is getting ready to begin work on one of the major long-term mitigation projects underway to directly address the flooding experienced Sunday.

Shovels will be in the ground Aug. 15 to build three huge retention basins on a 20-acre parcel of city-owned land with a goal of completing the project by October, Deasy said.

The basins will be able to collect and hold 40 cubic-acre-feet of water, roughly equivalent to 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Once completed, the basins will help slow the pace of the water as it moves down the mountain as well as capture debris, at least temporarily preventing culverts and drainage systems from becoming clogged, he said.

"If those were in place right now then this situation would not be nearly what it is today," he said.

Contact northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at llatch@gannett.com or on social media @laceylatch. Coverage of northern Arizona on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is funded by the nonprofit Report for America and a grant from the Vitalyst Health Foundation in association with The Arizona Republic.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: More flooding hits Flagstaff's west side with week of rain ahead