The U.S. 160 bridge over the San Juan River near the Arizona-Colorado border was closed to traffic during flooding in the Four Corners region, the Navajo Police Department said.
The Montezuma Creek Bridge was also closed, and Navajo emergency management personnel were working to evacuate residents in Bluff, Montezuma Creek and Aneth in southeastern Utah, police said Sunday in a Facebook post.
The National Weather Service office in Grand Junction warned Sunday of catastrophic flooding along the San Juan River between Four Corners and Mexican Hat, Utah.
The storms also hit communities across northern Arizona. In Lower Moencopi, a Hopi village near Tuba City, flooding displaced as many as 10 families. Some residents fled with only the clothes they were wearing, a fellow resident said.
Police warned evacuated residents not to return home. The weather service warning also urged people not to cross the river, saying low-water crossings were flooded and potentially impassable.
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Floodwaters surround trees beneath the temporarily closed U.S. 160 bridge over the San Juan River near the Arizona-Colorado border in a photo taken Sunday.
Hopi officials reported damage to homes, roads, bridges and utilities across multiple communities, while Navajo police reported rescues and evacuations in neighboring New Mexico and Utah.
Most of southern Shiprock, New Mexico, had power restored by Saturday, though some homes and businesses remained without electricity, according to the council’s summary of an incident command briefing. Four downed utility poles caused the outage, according to Navajo Tribal Utility Authority Shiprock District Manager Wilfred Franklin Jr.
In northwestern New Mexico, Navajo police reported Saturday that responders had conducted 20 overnight rescue operations, some involving multiple people. Rescue efforts focused on Farmington and west toward Shiprock, police said.
The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority said Sunday that flooding had disrupted Shiprock’s wastewater treatment plant and untreated wastewater was being discharged into the San Juan River to prevent sewage from backing up into homes and businesses.
The utility said its water supply runs on a separate system, was unaffected by the flooding and remained safe to use.
The utility urged Shiprock sewer customers to use less water to reduce sewage flowing into the river. It recommended putting off laundry, taking shorter showers and using dishwashers less often.
The authority also urged people to avoid the San Juan River and floodwaters in the affected area and keep children, pets and livestock away, warning that the water could contain pathogens and other contaminants.
