Floods trigger sewage spills, rescues & evacuations

Well, there is some good news tonight from Sedona as the city announces that most evacuation orders are being lifted, though some roads do remain closed because of the creek's water level remaining high. Several neighborhoods in Sedona, they were all evacuated on Sunday morning as the record rainfall pushed the Oak Creek out of its bounds. Some were trapped in their homes, leading to rescues on rooftops by local law enforcement. And even as for people, people return home, they're seeing all of the damage. About 20 people from the community, not just locals, but surrounding communities here around 7.30, 8 o'clock this morning, removing everything out of the house. Then we got all the shop vacs and cleared out the water. It makes me want to cry. All right. Like I said, a lot of us have lived here for a really long time. We've never seen anything like this. About 40 people were pulled to safety in Sedona. That was on Sunday alone. And flooding along Sedona's Oak Creek triggered two separate sewage spills in a single day as rising waters overwhelmed city infrastructure. Officials say the Bear Wallow pump station first overflowed on Sunday morning and dumped an estimated 2,700 gallons into the creek before pumper trucks got involved. By Sunday evening, rising floodwaters completely submerged that facility. That triggered a second spill. It's not clear how much was spilled that second time. Crews have restored operations, but water testing will happen after floodwaters recede. North of Sedona, Highway 89A remains closed and ADOT says that that road could be closed for a few more days. These are photos by ADOT showing the damage left behind along the highway. It was covered over the weekend as the Oak Creek flooded. Even though the water has gone down now, ADOT says it will take several days to figure out if it can be reopened. Sometimes pavement can look good from the surface, and then you go below and realize there are issues there with maybe the water or moisture has gotten under there and caused the underlying surface to be too soft for safety. So it's a very comprehensive process to ensure that every aspect of that highway, whether it's the asphalt, the guardrails, the landscaping, or in this case, the canyon walls there. Several other highways remain closed around the state for similar reasons, including SR 87 north of Winslow, SR 377 near Heber Overgard and parts of SR 288. Another area that was hit hard in the flooding is Camp Verde. Residents there along the Verde River, West Clear Creek and Wet Beaver Creek. They are remaining under evacuation orders tonight and we spoke with Camp Verde Marshal Service this afternoon who said the waters peaked around four o'clock this morning and it's now going down. But now there's a danger of water combined with electricity in people's homes. Folks are going back to their homes, they're trying to turn on appliances, risking electrocution. We've got residences that are flooded with lights still on, people trying to use their appliances. So we wanna caution them about that. And there is still a shelter that's set up for residents who may need it. That's located at Camp Verde Middle School. Parts of northeast Arizona, they're under an evacuation order, and specifically on White Mountain Apache tribal land. The tribal chairman spoke with us tonight, confirming that around 1,000 people remain evacuated. Seven communities from Cibecue to East Fork and beyond, they're being told to shelter in place. He says he expects that to continue until late tomorrow, while local rivers and creeks are still rushing strong. I went out today and looked at a few areas and every bridge that I visited, the waters were just flowing turbulently and very swift. It's still not a very safe place to be out there to take pictures or whatever that people are getting excited about. Yeah, you really need to be careful as all that water from the high country is moving south. We want to check in now with Erica. For more, Erica. Hey there. Yeah, in Carrizo Creek, for example, one of those rivers near the White Mountains is still at major flood stage. So there is definitely a lot of high water in our rivers across the state right now. And the threats are not over, even though the rain has ended. We have clear skies across the state. The storm now tracking across the plains out east of us. And no more rain expected in the coming days. But all of these green lines indicate flood warnings across Arizona. And while some of those have expired as of this evening, we still have plenty that are going to continue for at least the next 12 hours or longer. So here in the valley, we do have a flood warning remaining in effect until 1115 tomorrow for New River downstream of New River Dam. We also have a flood warning for the Verde River between Bartlett Lake and Salt River that will go until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. The Salt River, just downstream of Saguaro Lake, is under a flood warning until 8 a.m. tomorrow morning. And the following river beyond that, through Mesa... is under the flood warning until 11 45 a.m. on Thursday. As for the rest of the Salt River, we have flood warnings until 8 p.m. on Thursday for the Phoenix section and until 2 p.m. Saturday for the Buckeye section all the way down to Gila Bend. So make sure that you are using caution around the Salt River because where it is typically dry, that water is really flowing right now due to dam releases. Up in the Tonto Basin, Tonto Creek is under Under a flood warning until noon. Verde River is in a flood warning until 2.30 a.m. tonight. Flagstaff, the Rio de Flag, is under a flood warning until 11.30 p.m. tonight. And for the Little Colorado River, that will remain under a flood warning through 10 a.m. tomorrow. The MoenKopi Wash is under a flood warning until 1.30 a.m. tonight. So there, like I said, still a ton happening in terms of river flooding across the state. I will have a look at what you can expect for those river... Levels dropping and what you can expect in terms of our weather for this week in my full forecast. All right, Erica, thanks. Back here in the valley, some incredible new video capturing the moments that a man is rescued from floodwaters in Tempe after clinging to a tree there for nearly 12 hours. This all happened around 11 o'clock this morning in the river bottom near the Loop 101 and 202. Tempe fire called in the MCSO helicopter to help airlift the guy out of the riverbed. And he later told Tempe firefighters that the water just rose extremely quickly and he had nowhere else to go. He was taken to the hospital and is expected to be okay.