Heavy Rains Cause Flash Flooding in Phoenix
Heavy rains soaked Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, causing flash floods, road closures and flight delays.
Arizona usually gets 3 to 5 inches a year, however inches of rain fell in parts of the state within hours, leaving many residents stranded in their homes and on their rooftops.
Rescue crews reported at least a dozen rescues, but fortunately, there were no injuries.
Because of the storm, almost 3,000 homes in the region were left without power, officials said, according to NBC News.
Although the heaviest storms for the season have passed, weather forecasters say that more rain could fall later this week.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said that her office is monitoring the storm damage and is prepared to take additional action if need be.
"It looked absolutely devastating," Brewer said, according to the New York Daily News. "For the last 10, 15 years, we've never seen anything the likes of this."
According to meteorologist Gary Woodall of the National Weather Service, the rainfall reached higher totals in the region compared to all of last summer's monsoon season.
"It looks like the heavy rain is pulling out to the east and northeast out of that area," Woodall said on Tuesday. "But with all the rain that fell this morning, we're going to see continued flooding, continued runoff probably into the early evening."
"With so much rain falling so quickly, the water doesn't have a chance to soak into the hard-packed rocky soil," he added.
Traffic jams caused by flooding more than doubled Kathy Mascaro's usual 15-minute commute from home to work in the Phoenix area.
"It's crazy. You'd think, how could the desert flood, but it really does," she said. "I've never seen it this bad. I've been here over 20 years and it has never flooded this bad."
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