Overview
- Tribal police found two adults and a juvenile dead after officers responded around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday to reports that people had been washed away near Newcomb on the Navajo Nation.
- The National Weather Service issued a special briefing before the storms and kept flash-flood watches in place that covered nearly 8 million people across New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado.
- Storms dropped more than three inches in parts north of Phoenix, flooded suburban streets and forced multiple water rescues while the Navajo Nation reported damaged roads and local evacuations.
- Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren offered condolences as tribal police and first responders manage search and rescue, assess infrastructure damage and continue an investigation into the drownings.
- Meteorologists say late-monsoon warmth allowed unusually high moisture to fuel fast, heavy downpours that run off dry, compacted soils and can trigger debris flows on wildfire-scarred slopes, a pattern tied to other recent deadly flash floods in the region.