Colorado, Utah communities flood as yet more moisture saturates US
Southwest
[October 23, 2026]
By JESSICA HILL, WUFEI YU and MEAD GRUVER
PHOENIX (AP) — More severe weather struck the Four Corners region
Thursday, with flooding that swamped dozens of homes in Utah and led to
evacuations of low-lying areas in Colorado, a day after tornadoes blew
off roofs, knocked trees onto houses and downed power lines in Arizona.
The city of Hurricane in far southwestern Utah declared a state of
emergency after reddish-brown floodwater lapped into and around 80 homes
in a neighborhood and 50 recreational vehicles in an RV park.
Surreal scenes included a shipping container drifting slowly down a
street.
Chelsey Field had just finished dropping her kids off at school when she
noticed water rising around her neighbor’s property in Hurricane.
“The trucks had water up to the windshield, about halfway submerged,”
Field said. “That whole area was covered in water.”
Luckily, her neighbors were able to pull their horses to safety, using a
tractor to move debris. This is the second flood Field has seen in her
15 years living in Hurricane. The last was only two months ago.
“It’s pretty crazy to happen again, and I think this time it’s worse,”
she said.
In southern Colorado, rising waters prompted mandatory evacuations along
four rivers, including the San Juan River through Pagosa Springs. The
resort town famous for its riverside hot springs suffered flooding from
a similar weather pattern a year ago.
Local officials including Town Manager David Harris had their eyes on
floodwaters expected to crest a foot (30 centimeters) higher than during
last year's flood, from which he said they “learned a lot.”
Others may not have. Daredevils were seen taking advantage of the
floodwaters to go whitewater rafting, raising worries they would need
rescue by emergency crews already stretched thin, Harris said.
“There’s a lot of debris,” Harris said. “The last thing we want to do is
have to perform an extraction.”
The flooding was not unexpected, just the latest from two months of
heavy rain that ended a summer of drought. While parts of the Southwest
are rocky with little vegetation and naturally prone to flash flooding,
the recent rains have made flooding everywhere more likely, said Kate
Abbott, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Grand Junction,
Colorado.
“At this point we’re saturated and can’t take too much more without
flooding,” Abbott said. “This is the third or fourth round of this kind
of moisture we’ve seen in as many weeks.”
Rivers were expected to crest Friday morning after rain tapers off
overnight.
The Arizona tornadoes Wednesday night injured at least one person.
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This image taken from video provided by Landon Christensen shows
flooding in the Gould Wash drainage watercourse in Hurricane, Utah,
Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Landon Christensen via AP)
This fall has been unusually soggy in the Southwest, an area better
known for scalding heat, with El Niño conditions that have sent one
tropical system after another in from the Pacific, causing the Grand
Canyon and surrounding deserts to rage with floods.
National Weather Service meteorologists suspect at least three
tornadoes touched down as storms swept across central Arizona late
Wednesday.
The nasty weather hit during Lenna Landy's yoga routine in
Overgaard, Arizona, a community of about 3,000 people located 140
miles (225 kilometers) northeast of Phoenix. Landy had ignored
alerts about a possible tornado, but then the storm struck.
“It was like Zeus-was-angry kind of level, of thunder cracks,” Landy
said.
The power went off, her house shook and Landy couldn't find her
glasses.
“If this is my end, I won’t see it coming,” she recalled thinking.
“The scariest part was just like, how quickly it came on,” Landy
said.
The storm hit as members of the Overgaard Baptist Church were
wrapping up a prayer meeting.
Pastor Eric Woods had just led prayers for people to stay safe in
the weather when chandeliers started swinging and the power went
out. He told everyone to run into the women’s bathroom, which had
concrete walls and no windows.
“It just came on like a freight train,” he said. “I thought the roof
was coming off.”
They continued to pray in the bathroom, Woods said. They emerged
later to see damage to the church roof and many trees including an
old-growth ponderosa pine tree that toppled.
Warm, moist air moving north fuels storms coming in from the
California coast. Changing winds can make them spin, creating the
conditions for tornadoes, said Ryan Bernhart, a weather service
meteorologist in Flagstaff.
“This is very unusual for this area at this time of the year,”
Bernhart said.
Tornadoes are somewhat but not exceptionally unusual in Arizona.
Notable outbreaks happened in 2019 and 2010.
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Hill reported from Las Vegas, and Gruver from Fort Collins,
Colorado. Associated Press journalists Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix
and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.
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