Flash Floods Force Mandatory Evacuations Across the Southwest on Sunday, From Sedona and Camp Verde, Arizona, to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Where Officials Warn of "Catastrophic Flooding" as the San Juan River Is Forecast to Crest Above 20 Feet Late Sunday Night
Sunday, November 8, 2026
Heavy rain falling on the desert Southwest since Saturday evening turned creeks and rivers into flood threats on Sunday, forcing mandatory evacuations from Sedona and Camp Verde in Arizona to Pagosa Springs in Colorado, where officials warned of potentially “catastrophic flooding” as the San Juan River was forecast to crest at more than 20 feet late Sunday night.
The Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office put the forecast in stark terms: during the devastating 1911 flood that wiped out most of what existed as the town of Pagosa at that time, the San Juan River crested at approximately 17.8 feet. “This is a potentially catastrophic flood event,” the sheriff’s office said. Town officials had only just lifted an evacuation order from flooding last week before reimposing it on Saturday, with the river forecast to crest Sunday night at 21.9 feet. By sundown Sunday the river had reached about 14 feet, according to Vicky Schaffer, a spokesperson for the county, and roads in and out of the town were closed, with residents who were not under evacuation orders urged to stay home.
Anyone in low-lying areas along the San Juan, Rio Blanco, Navajo and Piedra rivers was told to head to a designated shelter at a local church, and officials advised residents not to wait to leave, warning that emergency crews may be extremely limited during the worst of the storm. The highway entering town was closed to inbound traffic, and residents were told to avoid contact with the San Juan River after sewage was discharged into it. In La Plata County, west of Pagosa Springs, officials said all public roads were closed because of the flooding, and evacuations were also ordered in nearby Durango, where the Animas River was rising quickly. Katie German, owner and chef of Bruin Coffee in Pagosa Springs, said downtown had been evacuated and streets were flooding, and that she feared the one bridge into town washing out, cutting off the trucks that carry in everything from food to fuel. “I’m worried about my business, worried about my employees, definitely worried for everybody in this town,” German said.
In Arizona, the water came just as fast. In Sedona, officials ordered residents near Oak Creek to leave immediately as floodwaters trapped multiple people in their homes, and a video shared by the Sedona fire department showed powerful floodwaters inundating vehicles and rushing past homes and other structures. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said state air rescue crews were assisting with rooftop evacuations and state transportation crews were helping clear debris. Yavapai County and the community of Camp Verde issued similar evacuation orders for residents living near swollen rivers and creeks, and more than 100 miles southeast of Sedona, officials in Gila County ordered the total evacuation of Gisela, a community of several hundred residents along Tonto Creek. No injuries or deaths had so far been reported, and nearly 20 homes had residents who needed emergency assistance to relocate, said David McAtee, spokesperson for Yavapai County.
The rains also reached Tucson, some 230 miles south of Sedona, where the flooding produced swift boat rescues, and in Flagstaff rain fell nearly nonstop on Sunday, flooding local roads and overwhelming storm drains while authorities searched for a man who slipped and fell into fast-moving floodwaters “and was not seen resurfacing,” according to a police statement Sunday evening. Outside Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Flagstaff, people filled plastic bags with sand to try to keep more water out of the building, where it had already reached the garage, the basement and an office. To the southeast, in the Pinetop-Lakeside area, “manhole covers are popping up all over” and residents reported sewage backing up into homes because of the flooding, the region’s sanitary district said.
“We are getting two or three months of rain in a span of a couple of days,” said Aaron Hardin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson. The weather service estimates as much as 4 inches of rain could fall across the region, in a soaking that started Saturday evening and was expected to saturate the region through Monday, fueled by a series of Pacific storm systems. Flood warnings and watches covered nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado and western New Mexico, in addition to part of southern Nevada — including the sparsely populated Four Corners region where the states meet. The weather service office for Salt Lake City noted that previous storms had already soaked places like Zion and Capitol Reef National Parks, warning that could worsen flooding and that “backcountry roads will likely become impassable from this excessive runoff.”
For the families in the path of the water, Sunday was a day of orders, not choices: leave now, head for the church shelter, stay off the roads, stay out of the river. In town after town, the same instructions repeated — do not wait for the water to arrive, because when it does, the crews who would come for you may not be able to get through.
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