San Juan River Floods Farmington, New Mexico; Damage Costs Estimated in the Hundreds of Millions

Flooding along the San Juan River forced evacuations across Farmington, New Mexico, last week, and the state's governor now estimates infrastructure damage at between $200 million and $300 million. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said environmental, road and infrastructure repairs alone would drive costs to that range. She said she hopes spending stays closer to $30 million to $40 million, a figure San Juan County manager Mike Stark used in recovery estimates. On Monday, Lujan Grisham signed executive orders making $8.25 million in additional state funding available for flood response. The night before, she announced that the federal government had "partially granted" New Mexico's request for an emergency declaration in response to the regional flooding.

The flooding developed over a few days. Intense rainstorms tied to an active El Niño-driven Pacific hurricane season saturated the San Juan mountains in Colorado, and the runoff moved downriver into New Mexico. Evacuation notices reached Farmington residents on phones as early as Wednesday night. Connie Gooch, who has lived in Farmington for more than 65 years, said her sister was told to leave Thursday from a house near the river. "Every year she goes through this," Gooch said. "The river starts rising, and she starts making sandbags to put around. But this year it was so fast she didn't have time to do that." By Sunday, rain eased and river levels began falling.

National Weather Service gauge data from Farmington shows how quickly the river changed. The San Juan measured about 3.5 feet early Thursday. By Friday it reached 14 feet, about 13 times higher in roughly 36 hours, flooding neighborhoods across the city and possibly setting a record for the highest water ever recorded there. The Navajo Reservoir upstream held back much of the mountain runoff, but floodwater also came into the city through two normally dry tributaries, Gobernador Canyon and Caon Largo. "This is a catastrophic flood of historic proportions," said Devon Neeley, San Juan County's public information officer. "This river got wider than we have ever seen it in our lifetimes." He said fire crews, police officers, National Guard troops and out-of-state swift water teams rescued between 200 and 300 county residents, using helicopters to lift people off rooftops and amphibious vehicles where water ran high.

Flooding also struck other parts of the Four Corners states. Tyler Schmidt, captain of the fire and rescue team in South Fork, Colorado, on the Rio Grande, said several neighborhoods held two to three feet of water. Well water along the Rio Grande in the San Luis valley needs testing, and damaged bridges need assessment. Sedona, Arizona saw sewage spills from flooded treatment plants. On the Hopi reservation, KNAU reported extensive damage. The Hopi reservation sits inside the Navajo reservation, where rescues, washed out roads and flooding have also been reported.

Farmington, a city of about 46,000 people, is a center for coal, oil and natural gas production and a hub for the northeast side of the Navajo reservation, which spans three states. San Juan County Fire Chief David Vega told residents at a public briefing Sunday to stay out of evacuated areas while hazards remain. "The public is anxious to get back in; we recognize that, we're sympathetic to that," Vega said. "Now that the swift water component is out of the way, that exposes a whole new set of hazards for us." He listed raw sewage, damaged gas lines, live power lines and floodwater, and added: "The water is not healthy. Stay out of the water. Gas, diesel, pesticides, fertilizer, these are not things that you want on your clothes." Lujan Grisham visited San Juan County on Monday, and no schedule for returning residents to flooded neighborhoods has been announced.

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