Flash Flood — Gila, Arizona

2021-08-18 · near Little Acres, Gila, Arizona

Event narrative

After 2 to 4 inches of rain fell, beginning around 0830MST, over the 2021 Telegraph burn area, catastrophic flooding occurred in Claypool area between Miami and Globe. Runoff mostly collected in Russell Gulch and a few feet of floodwaters moved downhill through the Claypool community. Security cam footage from a pizza shop showed floodwaters reached US-60 near mile post 247 around 1056MST. US-60 became impassible a couple minutes later and was closed in both directions for a couple hours before being reopened around 1240MST. The same areas were impacted again in the mid-afternoon after another wave of flash flooding move through the area. The Gila County Emergency Manager estimated over 50 homes and structures were damaged by flooding. Included in the damage was the pizza shop with the security footage, which was fully surrounded by flooding. A hotel next to the pizza shop had all of its ground level rooms flooded, including a wall that collapsed due to the force of the water. Roads to the nearby hospital were cutoff by floodwaters. The hardest hit area was Little Acres Mobile Home Park, 1 mile south of US-60. Most if not all of the mobile homes had flood damage as an estimated 4 feet of water and mud moved through the park. Security footage shows one home was even swept from one side of the park to the other and was destroyed. Many of the owners were displaced from their homes for several days while the park was cleaned. A power substation next to the park also experienced significant flooding. Fortunately there were no injuries or fatalities reported from this event.

Wider weather episode

An upper level trough and lead-on shortwave trough moved through Arizona during the day on the 18th. Moderate to high instability and high moisture content supported scattered strong thunderstorms. With deep south to southwest upslope flow, storms favored the foothills and mountainous areas of Maricopa and Gila counties. Most storms were producing at least 1 to 2 inch per hour rain rates, with several storms producing 2 to 3 inch rates and at times higher. Back-building and training of storms over the same areas resulted in significant to catastrophic flash flooding. A few burn scars experienced flash flooding, including the recent Telegraph burn area which had catastrophic flooding of the Russell Gulch drainage. There were also 2 fatalities on this day with off-roaders recreating near Camp Creek in northeast Maricopa County. The strong to severe storms also produced damaging winds from microbursts and small hail over lower desert locations.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.3905, -110.8224)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 983931. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.