Thousands of Arizonans Evacuated as Gila River Reservoir Spills Over

More than 3,500 people were being evacuated Tuesday in southwest Arizona as water began to pour over the top of a reservoir, threatening homes and crops in the Gila River Valley with what officials predict may be the worst flooding in more than 60 years.

Yuma County Sheriff Ralph Ogden said that many evacuees along a 70-mile stretch of the river would have to cross one of five bridges to reach safe territory, and he said he feared that the floodwaters would wipe out the bridges by today or Thursday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been holding the flow of water through Painted Rock Dam’s control gates and spillways to 12,500 cubic feet per second, the threshold level for major flooding.

But flows over the spillway are expected to exceed that level beginning today, said Jim Myrtetus, a spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers. Flows are expected to peak early next week at up to 50,000 cubic feet per second as the storm pounding Southern California moves east, officials said.

Water from the reservoir’s dam will reach vulnerable farming country around the towns of Wellton and Mohawk in about two days, and officials say that the deluge could destroy the area’s multimillion-dollar lettuce crop, as well as other produce.

State Transportation Department officials said that the roaring water will shut down U.S. 95, a major north-south artery near Yuma, where the Gila River crosses 15 miles east of town.

The Gila Valley follows the course of the Gila River, which runs 200 miles from the reservoir to Yuma, close to the Mexican and California borders, before emptying into the Gulf of California.

Elsewhere in Arizona, National Guard troops headed to a Navajo reservation in the Bird Springs area northeast of Winslow to evacuate 50 families stranded by flooding, and other troops were deployed to prevent looting of flooded Verde Valley homes.

In Bridgeport, south of Cottonwood, Guard troops were patrolling to prevent looting of homes evacuated after weekend flash-flooding, Yavapai County sheriff’s spokeswoman Laurie Berra said.