Hotel employees save man from Flagstaff flood

Continuing coverage of the historic rainfall and flooding across Arizona over the weekend. Communities are just beginning to look over all the damage tonight as the water starts to recede. Governor Hobbs declaring a statewide state of emergency because of the deadly weekend flooding and storms. And that will free up $200,000 in funding and state resources to help with the recovery effort at the local level. One area hit hard is Flagstaff. Local officials saying dozens of people had to be rescued Sunday night. And sadly, at least two deaths are now being blamed on the weather. Fox 10's Nicole Christine joining us live from Flagstaff with more tonight. Nicole. Well, good evening, Mark and Ellen. It was here right outside the Hyatt Place Hotel here in Flagstaff where Flagstaff police say a 73-year-old man from New York who was visiting, staying here at the hotel, died after he was swept up into this culvert just beyond the parking lot. The floodwaters much higher and faster than the waters that you're seeing now. But hours before that fatal drowning took place, Staff here at the hotel able to save a man who ended up in this same drainage ditch. I used to think it was just to go run over there, grab him, pull him out of the water, supervisor, call 911. Pure instinct. That's what Hyatt Place Hotel employee Theo Bahi says he was acting on, along with other bystanders, when they rescued a man swept away in floodwaters near the Flagstaff Hotel's parking lot during Sunday's storms. He went underneath the... Storm drained here across the street. I managed to pick him up over there at the pine tree over there. Luckily, my supervisor and another gentleman named Phil, he helped me as well. While he says a couple hours later, another man, later identified as 73-year-old Williams Singavarapu of New York, got swept away in the same spot. Police say he did not survive. They found him this morning by NAU. The freeway. This is the freeway in northern Arizona. Flagstaff residents, Christina and OJ Hibbert, got caught in the storms while traveling up I-17 from Scottsdale. It was like a river, and there were logs floating by, and I mean, it was crazy. So we were single file, car, like one car after the other, because the police were kind of guiding us through, just trying to kind of get through. I think they shut it down right after us. Yeah. And even driving through the water, you could feel like debris and like dirt and rocks. This amount of rainfall and flooding new to the longtime Flagstaff residents. We've lived here 22 years in Flagstaff. We've never seen flooding like that, especially on the freeway. Six swift water rescues carried out Sunday in the area, along with dozens of other evacuations and assistance-related calls. Four local dispatchers answering more than 1,000 calls overall during the storms. For parts of the state stretching into other flood-ravaged areas like Oak Creek near Sedona and parts of larger Coconino County ongoing calls flooding individuals being stuck not being able to get home and reports from o and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, and it's been a long time since we've been able to get out of the city, Outside of the city, individuals calling about Where their loved ones were, where their student at NAU was, so lots of that of unknowns. Those same crews prepared to continue responding to calls as their communities continue to recover. Just gonna be onward for us. We just wake up and do it again tomorrow and do it to the best of our ability with the resources we have. And hotel staff have placed flowers here right by where Mr. Singapura, who was swept away, as you mentioned, a second death is being attributed in the Flagstaff area to the flooding. That person has not been identified at this time. Live in Flagstaff tonight, Nicole Christine, Fox 10 News.