More heavy rainfall produced flash flooding and mandatory evacuations in a wide swath of the Southwest on Sunday, including a Colorado mountain town bracing for a river to reach historic levels, as weary residents in the normally arid region deal with another round of overflowing rivers and creeks.
In southwestern Colorado, officials in Pagosa Springs, a town in the Rockies located near ski resorts and known for its hot springs, warned in a Facebook post of potentially “catastrophic flooding” as the San Juan River was forecast to crest at more than 19 feet (5.8 meters) around 11:00 p.m. Sunday.
“To put the forecast into perspective, during the devastating 1911 flood that wiped out most of what existed as the town of Pagosa at that time, the San Juan River crested at approximately 17.8 feet (5.4 meters),” the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office said in a separate Facebook post. “This is a potentially catastrophic flood event. Extensive damage is expected.”…