Camp Verde residents face rising floodwaters and evacuations

Several neighborhoods in Canberra are being asked to evacuate tonight, and many people are packing up and leaving. Let's go to Andrew Christensen live with the latest tonight. Andrew, how's it looking? Yeah, Brian, because of flooding in the area, officials actually closed this road right over here. They also closed this park right next to me. We were in that park for the majority of the day, and we're actually seeing the water levels fluctuate. And in the past few hours, it got a lot higher. The water was actually coming towards us. So officials closed the park to everybody. And we were seeing as a sign was submerged, a bench was submerged. And I was talking to people that live in Camp Verde. They tell me that it's not usually like that, That the water is usually about 50 feet away from where it is today. I haven't seen it like this in probably 20 years, maybe more. People who live in Camp Verde say it's not often that the Verde River gets this wide. I didn't think it was going to get this bad. Some living along the river say the water line doesn't usually reach this bench or sign, and it's usually at these bushes several feet away. Other neighbors also saying the river doesn't normally flow as quickly where Beaver Creek meets the Verde River, getting close to some homes. It stinks because I don't have a horse trailer, so I'm trying to figure out how to get my horses and my... Tortoises and chickens out of there, so that's why we're making calls right now to see if there's a couple of rescue places that my wife is calling, and they said that they would be able to come and help us. While some people are considering evacuating, others say the water in the river was worse decades ago. Real narrow. It's only about 15, 20 feet wide. It used to be about 40 feet wide. Okay, and much deeper than it is now, so they aren't evacuating. There's no need. It's not. The river has actually gone down over the last three hours. Some areas of Cottonwood also under evacuation orders. Officials are asking people who evacuate to bring valuables, a go bag and not go through flooded waters. People evacuating are just hoping for the best. Wish us luck. Pray for us. And the Camp Verde Parks and Recreation Gym has a temporary shelter actually went there at the beginning of the day. There were five people there at the time. The marshal's office is giving updates on their Facebook. So we have a link to their Facebook on our website. Fox 10 Phoenix dot com reporting live in Camp Verde. Andrew Christensen Fox 10 News.