Flash Flood in Bernalillo County, New Mexico

A thunderstorm with heavy rain rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour resulted in flash flooding across eastern portions of Albuquerque. Several reports of flooded roadways and yards in the Albuquerque foothills was received. The rainfall also quickly filled up in city's arroyos, and three people within the arroyos were swept away. Emergency crews performed water rescues for the three individuals for several hours on July 20th, but rescue efforts were not successful. Unfortunately, emergency personnel recovered the bodies of two adult men on July 21st in the diversion channel washout area, and the body of a third adult man was recovered on July 22nd. A spokesperson for Albuquerque Fire remarked that this was the deadliest flooding event in Albuquerque in recent memory.

Media reports indicated a man was swept away and died in fast moving water that filled the north diversion channel arroyo. Eye witness reports noted the man was outside the arroyo before somehow ending up in it and being swept away. Search and rescue attempts by the fire department found the body two hours later in the Rio Grande. The only other information available at this time is that it was a male between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. The intense rainfall rates also washed lots of landscaping material, including rocks, mud, and fabric material, into streets across the metro area. A water mark near Carlisle and Comanche suggested the water was as high as 2 feet in the intersection. Road crews spent several hours cleaning up streets across the city.

Four people in the North Diversion Channel under Interstate 25 at Montgomery Blvd. were swept downstream by swift moving water from a nearby thunderstorm that was producing heavy rain. Three men were able to pull themselves out of the Channel, but a fourth male, Brandon Clifford Jordan, was found dead the next day in the Channel at 2nd street and Alameda.