Arizona warned of more flooding, dam failure near Phoenix

PHOENIX — Forecasters are warning of the possibility of more flooding in the Phoenix area and elsewhere in Arizona from runoff from remnants of a former tropical storm that dropped a record amount of rain in the city.

Authorities said an earthen dam in Arizona’s southern desert could fail because the lake behind it is swollen with storm runoff from the remnants of Tropical Storm Rosa and that residents of a small community nearby were being evacuated.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday said up to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) of rain had already fallen in the parts of the county that includes Phoenix and that flash flooding was expected.

A separate flash-flood warning was issued for Yavapai County north of Phoenix due to high water flow in a creek in the small community of Cornville and for a small part of the Tohono O’odham Nation’s reservation in Pima County in southern Arizona.

A flash-flood watch issued for much of south-central Arizona was extended through Wednesday afternoon.

National Weather Service meteorologists say 2.35 inches of rain had been recorded at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport as of Tuesday night.

That made it the rainiest October day since records have been kept, topping the 2.32 inches recorded on Oct. 14, 1988.

It also marked the eighth-rainiest day in Phoenix’s history for any date.

Rainfall from Tropical Storm Rosa since Sunday totaled 2.63 inches by Tuesday night.

That surpassed the total amount of rainfall recorded at the Phoenix airport during the entire Arizona monsoon season this year that runs annually from mid-June to the end of September.

The storm was expected to move out of Arizona by Wednesday afternoon and bring rain to Utah and Colorado.