Heavy Rain in Maricopa County, Arizona

Heavy rain led to a partial roof collapse of the Moon Valley Bible Church. The roof collapsed in the storage area and broke the main water pipe which flooded the entire roughly 30,000 square foot building with an estimated 4 inches of water. Rainfall amounts around 1.5 to 2.0 inches were measured in roughly an hour or less by many gages in the area. The church was hit by another storm a few days later that flooded the building again. No one was in the building at the time of the collapse and there were no injuries. Damage costs were estimated to be around $1 million.

Strong thunderstorms with extremely heavy rain led to mutiple collisions on Interstate 10 in downtown Phoenix during the afternoon hours on August 28. A total of 69 vehicles were involved in a series of crashes; one collision alone involved 35 vehicles and spanned over 2 miles from 16th street to 7th street. Trained spotters reported visibilities below one quarter mile in heavy rain in downtown Phoenix, and it was low visibility in heavy rain that led to the collisions. Seven people were taken to area hospitals and two were in serious condition. Fire officials medically evaluated at least 40 people.

Numerous thunderstorms developed across the greater Phoenix metropolitan area, especially the southeastern valley communities, during the afternoon hours on July 14th. Due to the very moist and unstable nature of the atmosphere, the storms generated intense rainfall which led to episodes of flash flooding. Heavy rain in excess of 2 inches fell in the Gilbert area between 330 pm and 430 pm. During the peak of the heavy rainfall, approximately 1.5 inches of rain fell within 10 minutes, causing the collapse of the roof at Tees and More located at 313 North Gilbert Road. According to the store owners, Pete and Barb Addiego, the roof collapse caused at least 110 thousand dollars in damaged equipment and inventory. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.