San Juan River flood crest moves into Utah as New Mexico and Colorado respond to Four Corners flooding

The San Juan River stood at 20 feet at Bluff, Utah, at 2:04 p.m. MDT on Sunday, Oct. 25, and was forecast to crest at 29.5 feet early Monday, according to a statement the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction, Colorado, issued at 2:07 p.m. continuing a flood warning. Flood stage there is 23 feet. The statement compares the forecast to a previous crest of 32 feet on Sept. 10, 1927, calls the situation an emergency, and says the warning covers the river from the Four Corners to Mexican Hat in Montezuma County, Colorado, and San Juan County, Utah, until 6 a.m. Tuesday.¹

Upstream in New Mexico, the weather service’s Albuquerque office said Sunday morning that minor flooding was continuing on the San Juan River at Farmington and Shiprock, with both falling. Its 11:31 a.m. statement forecast the Farmington gauge to drop to 8.1 feet Sunday afternoon, against a flood stage of 8.5 feet, and to 5.6 feet at noon Monday. The Shiprock gauge, where flood stage is 15.5 feet, was forecast to fall below that level late Sunday afternoon. Both statements said no current observed stage data was available.²

New Mexico

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office said Saturday, Oct. 24, that law enforcement had reported hundreds of water rescues between Farmington and Bloomfield and that about 58 New Mexico National Guard members, including swift-water rescue teams, had deployed to San Juan County on Oct. 23 and 24. The release said the San Juan River at Farmington had run 2 feet above its previous record, set in 1909, that the weather service estimated thousands of homes and buildings were affected, and that no deaths had been reported.³

The release said floodwater reached the Bloomfield Water Reclamation Facility and untreated wastewater flowed into the San Juan River. It listed shelters at McGee Park, Power House Church and First Baptist Church in Shiprock, and said the governor was preparing a request for a federal emergency declaration for the San Juan County flooding. “Right now, our focus is saving lives,” Lujan Grisham said in the release.³

San Juan County’s Office of Emergency Management said Oct. 23 that the county would declare a state of emergency that day and ordered residents of several areas along the San Juan and Animas rivers to evacuate, KSJD reported.⁴ County spokesperson Devin Neeley said the water was going down, that the county had no official count of evacuations or damaged homes and that he knew of no deaths, CBS News reported Sunday in a story the Associated Press contributed to.⁵

Colorado

Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster emergency at 8:36 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 22, for La Plata, Archuleta, Montezuma, Dolores, Hinsdale, San Miguel, Ouray, San Juan, Mineral, Alamosa and Rio Grande counties, activating the state emergency operations plan and authorizing the Colorado National Guard to help with evacuations and search and rescue.⁶ His office said Oct. 23 that the order had been amended to add Conejos County, that about 100 Coloradans had been evacuated and that many residents were stranded in their homes.⁷

In La Plata County, the sheriff closed the Animas River in Durango from Oxbow Park to Dallabetta Park to recreation on Oct. 23, KSUT reported. The station quoted a meteorologist with the weather service’s Grand Junction office as saying areas in and around Pagosa Springs had received 4 to 5 inches of rain.⁸

What the records do not show

• Official storm-total rainfall figures; the Pagosa Springs total here comes from a meteorologist quoted by KSUT.
• The observed peak stage at Farmington, or Shiprock; the weather service statements opened Sunday gave forecasts but no current readings.
• Official counts of damaged homes, or of evacuations and rescues in New Mexico.
• Whether New Mexico has filed its request for a federal emergency declaration for this flooding.