TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Sunday night’s monsoon hit the area hard, especially in the Foothills near Skyline and Columbus. Flood water, mud and even large rocks caused evacuations and left a mess that will take a long time to repair—and a natural disaster from two years ago aggravated it all.
While heavy equipment plowed through several feet of sand and mud, and hefted huge rocks out of the way, Maria Peri was doing the best she could to clear part of Havasu Street with a shovel.
“I am so powerless. I feel so sad for my neighbors. So much devastation that I don't even know what to do. I'm trying to clean up a little bit in this street. At least got the boulders out. I did the best I could.”
Her house was high enough to clear the water, but plenty of houses took the full force of the water and mud.
For Enid Whittaker, this invasion of mud is far too familiar. The Monsoon delivered a similar mess last year. She’d barely settled with insurance from last year when the new wave crashed in—even worse than last summer.
“And it was surreal a year ago and it happened because it just happened so suddenly that you don't expect it and then you're, you're watching three feet of water go by your house and it's not until the next morning that you realize that it surrounded the house and left mud.”
The mud came for a repeat performance because of another natural disaster: The Bighorn Fire from two years ago. It left a scar on the mountain where there’s not much plant life to hold in the soil so when a big rain rolls in, mud and rocks flow down.
Enid stayed with her house, but the mud and water were such a threat, Rural-Metro evacuated ten residents and two workers from an assisted living home. The road was so badly blocked we had to resort to a drone to get a view of the house from the air.
Just as Maria Peri felt compelled to do something to help her neighbors, Enid Whittaker is grateful for all the help she’s had digging out from last year’s mud, and this year's.
She says she’s grateful she’s had plenty of offers for places to stay. But she says once her house is repaired, she’ll be thinking about moving someplace else.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
