Sedona flash flood
Posted: Sep 11 2009 3:40 pm
Did all the water came from Oak Creek/Pumphouse Wash? Was anyone affected by the flooding or witness it or the aftermath? It doesn't look like anyone posted a trip in the area on Thursday other than jhodlof hitting some bad weather up on Bill Williams Mountain... 
Sedona cleans up after storm
by Tessa Muggeridge and Veronica Sanchez - Sept. 11, 2009 03:15 PM
The Arizona Republic 12 News
Construction crews, store employees and volunteers were working clean up a Sedona retail complex Friday after a sudden and ferocious downpour flooded the central part of the popular tourist destination.
“We've been working day and night,” said Wendy Lippman, general manager and resident partner of Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village in central Sedona. “My jaw pretty much hit the floor -- the wet floor -- when I saw [the damage]. I told all the tenants to shut down.”
Sedona Fire District spokesman Gary Johnson said water lines as high as three feet remain on the sides of buildings in the area.
After thunderstorms and a torrential downpour flooded the city around 2:05 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning at 2:08 p.m. Residents had no time to prepare as the weather changed.
Tiffany Campbell and her sister Tabitha were rescued from the flood. Tiffany Campbell said she hung onto a tree and starting talking to God when she saw the water rising to her sister's neck.
“I was afraid my mom would lose two daughters today,” she said Thursday night.
Sedona brought in the Flagstaff Fire Department to help. “This just happened so quick,” Johnson said. “I took and handled these cars just like they're almost like beach balls.”
Vehicles were strewn across the swamp of red mud as if they were toy cars, most stuck and many crunched or even totaled.
About 20 people were rescued from their vehicles at Tlaquepaque after getting trapped as water levels rose within minutes and four cars were abandoned under a bridge near Oak Creek.
Firefighters rescued an unknown number of people who were trapped in a home off Brewer Road by breaking a window, he said, but no one was injured.
While Johnson said there were no injuries as a result of the storm, about 12 vehicles couldn't be driven once water levels subsided and had to be towed. Another 10 or 20 cars are left in the parking lot at Tlaquepaque, but will likely have problems. Reports said many cars floated away or were overturned and large boulders were washed into roads.
The rain resulted in one driver hitting the wall of Secret Garden Café in the village, which caused a gas leak.
“The car ended up in the middle of the courtyard,” he said. There was no injury, except to a life-size statue of an elk that was knocked down in the incident.
Lippman said although 20 of the 45 stores and restaurants had to be closed Friday, every location should be open on Saturday, just in time for the village's big annual party. “It's kind of a mini miracle,” she said. “It has been a lot of people working together.”
She cited one retailer whose staff stayed up all night Thursday removing damaged wood flooring and still operated for business Friday on cement floors.
Flagstaff-area Arizona Department of Transportation spokesman Rod Wigman said water flowed into the city from the north and washed toward the creek, causing the water to rise, but the creek itself didn't flood.
“All of the small city washes that usually don't have much water flooded,” he said. “Some water drained into the creek but never caused it to flood.”
An ADOT bridge in the area that is under construction wasn't affected by the flooding and is still on track to be completed at the end of the year, authorities said.
Rain was falling at a rate of nearly four inches per hour and residents also experienced up to two inches of hail, according to the National Weather Service.
Johnson said skies are clear and blue. The National Weather Service predicts a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms mainly after 11 a.m., but it will fall to 20 percent before 11 p.m.
