Southwest Flooding Forces Rooftop Rescues in Sedona

Southwest flooding turned the first weekend of November into an emergency across Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, with helicopter rooftop rescues in Sedona and rivers cresting at record heights. A storm that dropped multiple months of rain in a couple of days is now sliding toward the Plains and Election Day.

Sedona hit hardest on Sunday

The scariest scenes came from Sedona, the red-rock tourist town that rarely sees water like this. Officials ordered evacuations along Oak Creek on Sunday morning, and at least nineteen homes were cleared as crews handled what the fire district called an excessive number of water rescues, according to AZFamily. Some homes took three to four inches of water inside.

State emergency crews carried out rooftop evacuations by helicopter as the creek rose. One couple told local TV they climbed onto their roof with about nine guests from their short-term rentals and waited roughly three hours to be lifted out. They refused to leave their dog behind, so they strapped him into harnesses and he flew out with them.

The creek itself broke into record territory. According to KNAU, Oak Creek reached nearly eighteen feet, a level officials described as unprecedented for the region.

Rivers across three states break records

The Southwest flooding was not limited to one town. According to CNN meteorologists, evacuations hit at least a dozen counties, and more than ten rivers, creeks and washes in Arizona and southwest Colorado surged past major flood stage, the highest level on the scale.

A few of those set new record crests. Record flooding unfolded along the Little Colorado River near Winslow and the Gila River near Solomon, where the water ran more than two feet above the level that can flood homes and businesses in Solomon, Safford and Thatcher.

Farther south, the soaking even brought flash floods and swift boat rescues to Tucson, and officials in Gila County ordered a full evacuation of Gisela, a community of several hundred people along Tonto Creek, according to the Associated Press.

Colorado and New Mexico on edge

In Colorado, Pagosa Springs is dealing with a repeat. The San Juan River crested Sunday evening nearly two feet higher than the destructive flood of October twenty-third, CNN reported. That means a town that was barely drying out got hit again about ten days later.

In northwestern New Mexico, around twenty thousand people in San Juan County got alerts to leave areas within half a mile of the Animas, La Plata and San Juan rivers, a county spokesperson told CNN. Rescues were underway and water had entered homes.

One of the heaviest details is also the saddest: crews in Flagstaff were still searching for a man who fell into fast-moving floodwater and was not seen resurfacing, police said.

The reason the Southwest flooding got so extreme is simple physics on a brutal timeline. Dry desert ground cannot soak up months of rain in a couple of days, so the water runs straight into washes and creeks that are usually bone dry. That is how Oak Creek, which normally carries a trickle in November, turned into a raging channel in a few hours.

Highways closed across central Arizona and northern New Mexico, and Flagstaff schools shifted to a late start on Monday because of road closures and continued rain, a local paper reported. Shelters opened too, including one at Sedona Red Rock High School for people ordered to leave immediately.

Why it matters for Election Day

The storm is now moving into the central United States. Severe thunderstorms are possible Monday across the central and southern Plains, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Wichita, with damaging winds the main threat and a few tornadoes possible.

By Tuesday the system weakens, but rain is still forecast for voters from the Great Plains and Upper Midwest down through the Mississippi Valley. Races in Iowa, Kansas, eastern Texas and northern Michigan could see wet conditions, and studies cited by CNN suggest active weather can dampen turnout.

For Gen Z voters, the practical takeaway is simple: check your polling place, plan for ponding on roads, and never drive through moving water. The Southwest flooding is a reminder that a few hours of rain on saturated ground can turn a quiet creek into a life-threatening river.

Flooding along some waterways could last through at least Tuesday, so more updates are likely. For more on extreme weather, see the climate coverage and world news.