Maricopa Co. meteorologists monitor monsoon floods

The Flood Control District of Maricopa County monitors monsoon storms around the clock. Meteorologists keep in close contact with other valley groups to alert them if there's a threat. Fox 10's Danielle Miller has the story. Meteorologists with the Flood Control District of Maricopa County, Hannah Whipple, monitors the monsoon storms as they come in. Whipple says they closely monitor bridges, levees, dams, and other structures for a We have 24-7 duty officer coverage, so there's myself and two other meteorologists at the Flood Control District that are duty officers and will send out if it's raining on the weekend, if it's the middle of the night, if it's overnight, if it's early morning, we are watching. We're sending out weather outlooks as need to, we're sending out coordination emails, we're sending out messages to those constituents that I mentioned, so to emergency managers, the people who need to take action to close roads, to maybe even make evacuations. If action needs to be taken, the district is in close contact with other emergency personnel who can take that action. Real-time data that's sent via radio so that we can track when it's raining, where, how much it's raining, what the impact is, are the streams flowing, is water filling up behind impoundments, those kinds of things. Whipple says every part of the county is susceptible to flooding and can become very dangerous very quick. The best words of advice, never drive through a flooded roadway. Any, you know, the right amount of rain in a short amount of time can cause pawning on roadways anywhere in the county, it can cause low-level washes to flow. Six inches of water can take you off your feet, 12 inches will take most cars, 18 inches can float just about any car you could possibly imagine. Water is also very powerful, it can erode the roadway, it can pull debris into the roadway, it can do all kinds of things that make what used to be a familiar road something completely different and completely dangerous and deadly. For more resources on flooding, go to our website fox10phoenix.com. Danielle Miller, Fox 10 News.