Washington PostPHOENIX — The remnants of Hurricane Norbert pushed into the desert Southwest and swamped Phoenix with record rainfall for a single day, turning freeways into small lakes and sending rescuers scrambling to get drivers out of inundated cars.
In Tucson, one woman died after her car was swept away by flooding and trapped against a bridge.
A flash-flood warning was issued for most of the Phoenix area and its outskirts through Monday morning because of thunderstorms and rainfall associated with Norbert after it was downgraded to a tropical depression.
Flash-flood watches covered most of the rest of Arizona.
Sections of interstates 10 and 17 in west Phoenix were closed during the morning commute. A state Department of Public Safety officer used the roof of his SUV to carry three stranded motorists from a flooded stretch of I-10.
Sedans and SUVs sat in water up to their hoods, and dozens of motorists parked on the wide, banked borders of the freeway to avoid the water.
The National Weather Service recorded 2.99 inches of rain by about 7 a.m., breaking the previous record of 2.91 inches set in 1933. The rainfall also eclipsed Phoenix’s average total rainfall of 2.71 inches for the entire summer rainy season.
The Arizona Department of Transportation said its pumping stations couldn’t keep up with the downpour.
Gov. Jan Brewer (R) declared a state of emergency because of the flooding and directed nonessential state workers to stay home.
Scattered power outages were reported, with more than 10,000 customers losing electricity.
The flooding came during an especially wet season in Arizona that included a storm three weeks ago that dumped more rain on some areas than had been received during the entire previous summer.
The last time I stayed in Phoenix, we got there after midnight, and it was still over a hundred degrees.