The Republic | azcentral.com

Valley emergency crews, workers and homeowners toiled on Monday to reopen roads and mop up the effects of the morning's record-breaking storm — a fallout that orphaned vehicles on Valley freeways, crippled businesses, flooded up to 200 homes and prompted more than a dozen water rescues.

Monday's rainfall levels shattered the previous one-day, calendar-day record of 2.9 inches, set on Sept. 4, 1939, according to the National Weather Service. It also topped the previous Sept. 8 record of 1.33 inches set in 1933.

The day holds a second-place position for highest 24-hour period of rainfall, set at 4.98 inches on July 2, 1911.

While most of the heavy rain had passed by late afternoon, flooding continued to threaten some areas of the Valley.

Flooding affected up to 200 homes in Mesa on Monday. A troubled Mayor Alex Finter said in the evening that Mesa was "planning for this to be a week-long, two-week or one-month event," calling the flooding a "slow-moving disaster."

Water had begun rushing into neighborhoods from Harris to Stapley drives and from Southern Avenue to the U.S. 60 on Monday afternoon after retention basins and canals overflowed.

Usually, if a retention basin gets too full, Mesa can turn to nearby Arizona Department of Transportation canals, and vice versa. This time, every part of the area's system was at or over capacity.

"The system is designed to hold a massive amount of water, and we got it – and more," Finter said. "All day, we've been watching this large volume of water move through the city, and it finally hit a stopping point at Stapley and the freeway (U.S. 60.) This is the worst I've ever seen, and I've been in the community since the '60s."

The city had pumps standing ready in neighborhoods through much of the day, waiting for parts of the water-retention system to regain capacity so flood water could be removed. Late Monday evening, the city still hadn't been able to fire up the pumps but expected to do so overnight.

Finter said ADOT and Mesa personnel were working together, using backhoes to rip out gates to allow water to move more freely. Mesa police announced shortly after 8 p.m. that Salt River Project would need to shut off electric power to the affected area in order to examine transformers.

Only nearby Keller Elementary School was officially evacuated. However, residents of affected neighborhoods were encouraged to leave and stay with relatives or go to the city's temporary shelter at the Broadway Recreation Center, at 59 E. Broadway.

As of 7 p.m., hardly anyone had taken advantage of the offer.

"Residents are standing in front of their homes almost in shock," Finter said. "I don't think it has quite sunk in what's happening and the effects. There's some reluctance to leave their homes. They don't want anything stolen."

Late Monday evening, the city was providing a shuttle service for residents with flooded homes. Officials also said police had been called to work overtime watching people's houses to put residents at ease.

In the meantime, Finter was making calls to U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon, who he said would be contacting the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday and Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Chucri to ask for the county's help with mosquito control.

The city also worked to mobilize volunteers, primarily from faith-based communities, to help make arrangements for dumpsters and other resources.

BY THE NUMBERS:Compare the flooding to ...

"We have 100 to 200 homes that are flooded or have water damage, and no one anticipated needing flood insurance," Finter said. "We realize that this is going to be a situation that won't go away overnight."

Karri Allen, 48, was among the residents who decided to leave their homes Monday evening. She carried a pair of bags and walked a couple blocks to have her daughter pick her up. Allen said she was leaving because she had to be at work Tuesday morning and couldn't get her car out of the garage.

Allen said she felt lucky — the water came just up to her house.

"For me, it's all nerve wracking because I have a little bit of fear about water and floods," she said.

Patti Benard, 63, also opted to flee for the night and stay with her daughter a few blocks away. Benard said the school buses created giant waves as they drove down the street, which is how water got into her home and soaked her carpet.

"Nothing like this has ever happened," the 30-year resident said. "The sad part is you can't take anything but what you can put on your back right now."

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton reaffirmed the need for city residents to remain safe as the storm that pelted the valley with record-breaking rainfall Monday began to settle.

Stanton and members of several other agencies working recovery efforts gathered at the city's Emergency Operations Center offering safety tips and an update on the recovery process.

He urged Phoenix residents with homes flooded with 6 inches or higher to contact the city's damage assessors at 602-534-2222.

Stanton also advised parents to make sure their children refrained from playing in large puddles.

The briefing took place in the late afternoon, just before rush hour, for which Stanton said commuters should drive safely by avoiding areas flooded by the storm.

The mayor said he had spoken to the U.S. Small Business Administration in Arizona after it approved Phoenix City Councilwoman Kate Gallego's and Gov. Jan Brewer's request for financial assistance for residents in south Phoenix with homes flooded in prior monsoon storms.

He also said the Governor's Office was trying to determine whether Arizona would qualify for federal emergency assistance.

Phoenix Fire Department assistant chief and emergency management coordinator Kevin Kalkbrenner said 13 of the 30 roadways that had been closed due to flooding had been reopened as of about 4 p.m. Monday.

The city was continuing its efforts to clear roadways and other flooded areas, Kalkbrenner said.

By early afternoon, Arizona Department of Transportation crews had reopened portions of westbound Interstate 10 near 43rd Avenue, the site where dozens of drivers were forced to abandon their vehicles and wade to higher ground.

ADOT officials said they would work with the Department of Public Safety to tow the abandoned and flooded vehicles to ensure they they're not blocking traffic or interfering with cleanup efforts. Mud had slowed the process, and crews were able to reopen eastbound I-10 between 51st Avenue and 35th Avenue by early Monday evening, according to transportation officials.

By early Monday afternoon, crews had reopened several areas on U.S. 60 that were closed earlier in the day, including U.S. 60 in Mesa at Val Vista, U.S. 60 in Tempe at Priest Drive, and U.S. 60 in the West Valley, where it is also known as Grand Avenue, between 51st and 59th avenues, according to ADOT.

Transportation officials also reopened Interstate 17 at Indian School Road late Monday morning. The area had been closed since shortly after 5 a.m.

ADOT spokesman Tim Tait said the department has pulled in staff from other areas of the state to assist with inspections, lighting areas and other operational issues.Tait said 130 employees from maintenance crews in metro Phoenix have been on the road since about 3:30 a.m.

"It's essentially all hands on deck at ADOT," he said. "We're making use of everyone that's available in the field today."

But Tait said the agency has yet to mobilize everyone throughout Arizona—other staff members are on standby as forecasts threaten to produce more rain throughout the state.

Several city roadways have also begun to reopen after the deluge, officials said Monday afternoon.

According to Scottsdale police, these roads included Scottsdale Road and McDonald Drive, Hayden and Indian School roads, and McKellips and Miller roads. Phoenix police said several areas have reopened as well, including 46th Street and Shea Boulevard, 16th Street and Southern Avenue, Baseline Road west of Central Avenue and Tatum Boulevard between Cholla Street and Shea.

Monday's downpour has been frequently referred to as a monsoon, but is actually a hybrid of the Valley's seasonal storms and Tropical Storm Norbert, according to 12 News meteorologists.

Gov. Jan Brewer ordered non-essential state employees to stay home Monday and she declared a "statewide emergency for areas impacted by today's severe rainfall and flooding."

The storms prompted Stanton to declare a state of emergency for the city of Phoenix, an action that allows multiple city departments to operate and respond from one location.

Stanton said the emergency management team would workk "around the clock" to monitor the situation and deploy the necessary resources to areas of the community that were hit the hardest.

"Last night the city of Phoenix and our entire regions saw levels of rainfall we haven't seen in nearly a century," Stanton said at a media briefing late Monday morning. "...Thank God there have been no fatalities as a result of this historic rainfall and flooding."

Kalkbrenner said the Fire Department experienced 1,300 calls from about 3 to 9 a.m. and the Police Department fielded 3,491 calls from midnight to 10:30 a.m. — 2,000 more calls than last Monday. By the 11:30 a.m. news conference, the Fire Department had performed 14 water rescues.

The downpour caused at least two mudslides on Valley roadways. Mud and debris from the embankment near Loop 202 Santan Freeway at Price Road washed down onto the roadway. By 10 a.m., sweepers were cleaning up the westbound lanes and the eastbound lanes were already open, according to ADOT.

A similar scenario unfolded near State Route 51 and Shea Boulevard, with dirt and rock running down the slope and onto the roadway. ADOT crews were using hand tools and a truck to mop up the mess on the northbound roadway and the southbound lanes were open.

More than two-dozen schools, including the Maricopa Community College District, delayed or canceled classes Monday morning.

All 19 schools in the Roosevelt district are closed.

The district, which stretches the base of South Mountain to the Salt River and from 40th Street to 35th Avenue, is inundated with water coming down off South Mountain, said Joseph Ortiz, spokesman for the Roosevelt school district.

"We're always going to do what's best for the safety and security of the students," he said. "The decision to not hold classes today was the result of many of our principals calling in, saying it was difficult to get to the schools and that there was some water damage from some of our schools."

Robocalls notified the parents of the more than 9,500 students in English and Spanish that schools would be closed today, Ortiz said. The message was also posted to the Roosevelt district's Facebook page.

At John F. Kennedy Elementary school in the Roosevelt District, classrooms are seeing minor flooding while the fields behind the school are flooded anywhere from an inch up to 5 feet.

"We're evaluating whether school will be back tomorrow. It depends on whether there is more rain today," Ortiz said.

Three weeks ago, Sunland Elementary closed after monsoon storms turned the school into a "mini-raging river," seeping into classrooms and causing water damage. The school has since been moved to a new campus for what could be the rest of the semester while the water damage is repaired.

The Maricopa County Flood Control District recorded more than 3 inches of rain at several of its rain gauges, and the widespread damage from Monday morning's storm is unique — even in an active monsoon.

"Occasionally we'll get a storm that really dumps on the west end of U.S. 60, or the central part, but not to this extent over the whole urban area," said Steve Waters, a flood warning branch manager with the flood control district.

"There is still rain coming from the southwest," Waters said early Monday morning. "We're going to be in this for the better part of the day."

The storms prompted firefighters and paramedics to rescue a handful of stranded motorists early Monday morning, including a man who became trapped in his car about 3:15 a.m. near 77th Street and Roosevelt, according to a public-safety spokesman.

More than two-dozen firefighters from Scottsdale, Mesa, Tempe and Chandler worked to rescue the man who was trapped in about 3 feet of running water, with about a foot of water inside his car, said Scottsdale Fire Battalion Chief Rod Thompson.

A Tempe police spokesman also reported about 6:15 a.m. Monday that a roof collapsed at a supermarket near Baseline Road and McClintock Drive, though no one was injured in the incident.

Firefighters were called to rescue 13 children who were stuck inside the Child Time child-care center in Chandler near Dobson Road and Chandler Boulevard. The building was undisturbed but was situated like an island, surrounded by water, and access to the building became an issue, according to firefighters.

The child-care center was shut down, officials phoned parents to pick up their children and firefighters helped remove the kids from the building.

Lucky Paws Shelter, a cage-free animal shelter at 6423 E. Thomas Road in Scottsdale, flooded from overnight heavy rains. Shelter director Kelly Perry said there was ankle-deep water in many of the dog rooms and all of the dog bedding was ruined.

"We have 86 dogs and 19 puppies, and we're lucky to have the couches so they can get up out of the water, but we had to throw out all of the big dog beds," she said. "Anything on the floor was ruined. Some places were four inches deep, depending on how the water rises in certain areas."

Volunteers were mopping and shop-vacing the water. Dog bedding, towels, mops and other supplies are needed. Visit luckypawsaz.org to make donations.

The storm directed attention and resources to various other animal shelters as well, but it appeared damage elsewhere was minimal.

The Arizona Humane Society's Campus for Compassion on Dobbins Road was closed Monday due to flooded roads. Workers arrived early to place sandbags, thus keeping water out of the shelter, said spokesperson Bretta Nelson, and the shelter is expected to reopen Tuesday.

Minor damage was reported at the Sunnyslope facility. Officials said water got into the admissions office and the animal hospital, but the shelter was open with limited staffing.

The Arizona Animal Welfare League and SPCA shelter at 40th Street and Washington suffered minor flooding damage. Water from the courtyard seeped into the recently renovated Education Building, causing flooring and drywall damage to a classroom and the reptile room, but no animals were affected.

Officers from Maricopa County Animal Care and Control were unable to respond to calls Monday morning due to Valleywide flooding. However, call volume was lighter than usual, reported spokesperson Melissa Gable, perhaps because strays knew better than to be out in weather like this.

Officials said it was too early to tell whether there was a spike in homeless people seeking services at Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) in downtown Phoenix.

"We didn't see too big of a recorded increase in folks needing shelter last night but that's largely because we do our check-in at 6 p.m. and the rain didn't start until 2 a.m.," CASS spokeswoman Lindsey Roberts said.

The non-profit typically houses over 900 men, women and children nightly at its primary shelters. In anticipation of the overnight storms, CASS last night also opened up the Lodestar Day Resource Center, an adjacent building on the downtown human services campus with 200 additional beds. The Lodestar Day center regularly is used as an emergency weather relief shelter, usually when there are extreme heat or cold advisories.

"It's kind of normal protocol for us whenever these situations arise," Roberts said, adding that the emergency weather relief shelter would likely be open again tonight. "During these times, we don't turn anyone away. So anyone who needs a place to escape the elements, we can provide that."