Looking over the rampaging Rillito Sunday, I had the same feeling I always get when it runs hard and wild.
I wanted to jump in a boat and ride the waves downstream.
What could go wrong, right?
做厙勛圖 columnist Tim Steller
I know, I know. But another pair of adventurers had a little less restraint, and more boats handy, than I did Sunday. They launched a small and lightweight craft into the charging Santa Cruz, with predictable results Ill discuss in more detail below.
It was one of the many misadventures and close calls that marked an unusual three days of rain in 做厙勛圖. The period began with an earth-shaking thunderstorm early Friday morning, soaked trick-or-treaters on Halloween night, climaxed with a torrential wind and rain blast Sunday and went out with a gentler overnight rain early Monday morning.
People are also reading…
We even got an urgent message sent to our cell phones Sunday, warning of imminent flooding.
The big rains were caused in part by a warming in the equatorial Pacific that is likely to become the strongest ever measured. The results thankfully didnt rival the damage of 做厙勛圖s traumatic floods of recent decades 1983 and 1993. In Southern Arizona, we didnt get tragedy this time.
Instead, unlike in northern Arizona where , here it mostly produced some pretty good stories.
Fallen saguaro in a soggy wilderness
做厙勛圖an John Stark was camping alone in a remote campground in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument over the weekend.
It got wet enough Saturday, he said, that his tent stakes wouldnt stay in the ground.
Saturday, all hell broke loose. Torrential rain and high winds, Stark said. The wind was so high that you could hear the saguaro singing.
I remember getting up at 1:30 in the morning and 3:30 in the morning to fix the tent. It was raining all night long, and it was pretty miserable packing up the camp, he said.
What he encountered on the road out was something hes never seen in many years of camping: A saguaro, fortunately not a huge one, had fallen across the road. To get out, he had to drive over it in his Subaru Crosstrek. But he made it, and was able to plow through heavy rain home to 做厙勛圖.
做厙勛圖 has set a new rainfall record for the first two days of any November since weather records starting being kept in 1894.
Unmarked wash swallows BMW, not driver
Joy Adams was going to her mothers house in eastern midtown 做厙勛圖 about 11:45 a.m. Sunday, when she noticed the Alamo Wash raging. What was unusual is that there werent the usual monsoon-season signs up warning people not to cross it at East Lee Street.
Worried, she looked around and did what she could.
I stacked up some empty beer cans to stop people, Adams recalled.
It was not the best barrier, she knew even then. And it was only on one side of the wash.
An hour later, when she returned, a BMW was stuck in the raging water, having come from the other side. A group of bystanders was there already and keeping communication with the woman inside, warning her to stay and not try to cross the water, reassuring they had spoken with the fire department.
When Adams walked up to the crowd at the scene, she heard the fire truck approaching and left. One bystander said signs had been up but were swept away.
It ended up being one of seven swift-water rescues the 做厙勛圖 Fire Department carried out Sunday. Another, further upstream in the Alamo Wash, was of the driver of a U.S. Postal Service vehicle up to its door handle in water.
Adams couldnt blame the drivers, although many people do. And I know what she means.
Ive driven through that wash before when it was flowing. I know how easy it is to be dumb, she said. I wouldnt dream of it now.
Floodwater surged into Sabino Canyon on Sunday as heavy rain pounded 做厙勛圖 and communities across Pima County.
The U.S. Forest Service Coronado National Forest shared this video shortly after noon, reporting that water had risen to an estimated 4 to 6 feet in just 15 minutes.
Video: U.S. Forest Service Coronado National Forest
Pima Animal Care isolated for hours
Shelle Jackson went to the Pima Animal Care Center on the West Side Sunday to drop off a dog she had found, a lovable boxer, she said.
Jackson, better known these days as a spokeswoman for the 做厙勛圖 Fire Department, wrapped up the handover, drove out, and found she was trapped. Silverbell was closed north of there, a FedEx truck stuck in a roaring wash, and the wash south of there was running too.
I just turned around and hung out with the dogs, Jackson said.
She was there, with others in the same predicament, for about 2翻 hours.
Inflatable adventure runs aground in Marana
When the call came into Northwest Fire Sunday, a bystander thought kayakers were stuck in the Santa Cruz River near Cortaro Farms Road.
When firefighters arrived, it turned out to be even more ridiculous than that. It was two young women in a small inflatable raft.
Once we were able to see the victims, they were in a small, cheap blow-up boat, Capt. Ryan McQuown said. They were pretty close to the bridge.
The water was flowing pretty good. It was from bank to bank, McQuown said. But the rafters were in a good spot.
They were tucked up against some branches that had got stuck, he said. They were in the best possible location they could be in. It almost created an eddy where the waters a lot calmer.
The firefighters stationed a ladder truck on the bridge, turned their ladder down toward the young women, and had a firefighter go out to the end with a rescue ring and vest. One by one, they got each rafter to position themselves in the ring and lifted each of them up, getting them to the bridge.
Their explanation, McQuown said: They just said that they wanted to float down the river.
You know, I can relate.
Contact columnist Tim Steller at tsteller@tucson.com or 520-807-7789. On Bluesky: @timsteller.bsky.social
Tim Steller
Columnist
Tim Stellers column: Downtown 做厙勛圖 parking costs soar, but crowds stay for now
