The Four Corners region is bracing for another round of heavy showers and thunderstorms after days of rain triggered evacuations, water rescues, bridge closures, and sewage-laced cleanup across the Southwest.
A rain-soaked stretch of the Southwest is under a new flood watch as swollen rivers, closed roads, and damaged homes leave communities still digging out. The CBS News report describes days of torrential storms that forced evacuations and water rescues, with more potentially heavy rain and thunderstorms on the way.
The National Weather Service put much of the Four Corners, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet, under a flood watch. Local officials said rivers should keep falling in places, but repeated downpours could still swamp roads, small streams, narrow canyons, and burn scars left by earlier fires.
Rains picked up Wednesday after months of drought gave way to two months of on-and-off heavy rain fed by tropical moisture from the Pacific. Other recent deadly flooding had already hit the Grand Canyon and parts of New Mexico. This latest surge left property damage, power outages, and contaminated mud in its wake.
Water flow on the San Juan River in southwest Colorado jumped significantly overnight, the Colorado Department of Transportation said. The San Juan River Bridge remained closed Sunday.
In Durango, Colorado, the Animas River was still closed Saturday. High water turned familiar crossings and recreation stretches into hazards, and officials kept people out while levels stayed dangerous.
CBS News meteorologist Andrew Kozak warned that repeated torrential rain and storms could flood roads, small streams, narrow canyons, and burn scars. Forecasts called for the rain to spread across the central and northern Plains Sunday night, then push toward the Upper Midwest on Monday and Tuesday.
That path matters for a region already waterlogged. Burn scars from past wildfires shed runoff fast. Narrow canyons channel water with little warning. Small streams that look harmless in dry months can jump their banks in hours.
In Pagosa Springs, floodwaters swallowed a house so completely that only a small piece of roof and a chimney remained visible in video shared with CBS Colorado. Neighborhood streets turned into channels of fast-moving water.
Pagosa Springs resident Chris Mott described the force of the water as it tore through defenses residents had put down.
Mott said:
"I'm sorry, buddy. I tried. I really tried. But this one was bigger than the last one."
He added:
"It moved sandbags and everything."
In San Juan County, New Mexico, Sheriff Shane Ferrari’s own home took on about 4 feet of water. Ferrari said the area’s situation was stable Sunday as he and other residents worked to clean up and deal with the damage. Stability did not mean the emergency was over.
San Juan County spokesperson Devin Neeley put the conditions in plain terms.
Neeley said:
"It's a pretty active disaster zone."
He also said:
"We're not on the downswing by any means."
Floodwaters were receding in San Juan County, but they left mud and silt behind. Much of that muck was contaminated with sewage after failures at waste plants, Neeley said. Families facing ruined floors and yards also face a health hazard layered on top of the property loss.
Neeley said the county did not have official numbers on damaged homes or how many people evacuated. He was not aware of any loss of life. Power outages still hit multiple areas, and crews likely needed a few days to restore service.
That combination, closed bridges, shut rivers, sewage in the silt, and slow power restoration, is what an “active disaster zone” looks like on the ground. Residents move sandbags. Sheriffs bail out their own houses. County spokesmen cannot yet tally the full damage because the water has not finished its work.
The same Southwest that spent months in drought is now absorbing tropical Pacific moisture in repeated bursts. Two months of on-and-off heavy rain primed the ground. When the heaviest pulses arrived midweek, rivers rose fast enough to close bridges and inundate homes overnight.
Officials still expected further receding on swollen rivers if new storms held off. The flood watch and the forecast for more showers and thunderstorms cut against any sense that the danger had passed. Burn scars, canyon country, and small drainages remain the weak points when the next round arrives.
For now the picture is unfinished: no full damage count, no full evacuation tally, power still out in places, and waste-plant failures that turned cleanup into a contamination problem. The National Weather Service watch covers much of the Four Corners while transportation officials keep the San Juan River Bridge closed and Durango keeps the Animas shut.
When waste plants fail and families are left shoveling sewage-laced mud, competent infrastructure and honest timelines matter as much as any forecast, and the people living with the mess deserve both.
