Colorado Tourist Town Braces for Historic River Crest as Storms Batter US South-West

Flash flooding and mandatory evacuations swept across a wide stretch of the American south-west on Sunday, as heavy rainfall drenched the normally arid region. Among the hardest pressed was Pagosa Springs, Colorado, a tourist town bracing for its main river to climb to historic levels.

The town of more than 2,000 people sits in the Rockies near ski resorts and is known for its hot springs. Officials there warned of potentially catastrophic flooding, with the San Juan River forecast to crest at more than 20ft (6.1 meters) late on Sunday night.

The Archuleta county sheriff's office put the forecast in stark terms in a Facebook post, noting that during the devastating 1911 flood that wiped out most of what then existed as the town of Pagosa, the river crested at approximately 17.8 feet. "This is a potentially catastrophic flood event," the office said.

By sundown on Sunday the river's crest had reached about 14 feet, according to Vicky Schaffer, a county spokesperson. Roads leading in and out of town were shut, and residents who were not covered by evacuation orders were urged to remain at home.

Elsewhere in the region, communities in northern New Mexico and central Arizona also issued mandatory evacuation orders, and the rains forced the closure of several highways.

In Sedona, Arizona, officials told residents living near Oak Creek to leave immediately as floodwaters trapped multiple people inside their homes. Neighboring Yavapai county and the community of Camp Verde issued similar orders for those near swollen rivers and creeks.

More than 100 miles (160km) south-east of Sedona, officials in Gila county ordered the complete evacuation of Gisela, a community of several hundred residents along Tonto Creek. The wet weather also triggered flash floods, river flooding and swift boat rescues in Tucson, roughly 230 miles south of Sedona.

"We are getting two or three months of rain in a span of a couple of days," said Aaron Hardin, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson.

In Flagstaff, Arizona, rain fell almost without pause on Sunday, flooding local roads and overwhelming storm drains. Authorities were searching for a man who slipped and fell into fast-moving floodwaters and, according to a police statement on Sunday evening, was not seen resurfacing.

The latest round of soaking rain began on Saturday evening and was expected to saturate the region through Monday. The weather service estimated that as much as 4in (10cm) of rain could fall, fueled by a series of Pacific storm systems, and issued flood warnings and watches for nearly all of Arizona and parts of southern Utah, south-western Colorado, western New Mexico and southern Nevada, including the sparsely populated Four Corners region where the states meet.