Bad newsFour Corners Floods Leave Thousands Displaced or Digging Out as New Mexico Counts Costs
Thousands of people are displaced or facing cleanup after a week of flooding across four states. New Mexico's governor says infrastructure damage alone could reach $200 million to $300 million, and a federal emergency declaration was only partly granted.
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Rescuers Saved 200 to 300 in New Mexico Floods as Reservoir Held Back Runoff
The bill for the Four Corners flood is only starting to arrive. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Monday that infrastructure damage in the state could cost $200 million to $300 million, NPR reports. The estimate dwarfs the $30 million to $40 million that county manager Mike Stark first put on San Juan County’s recovery. Rain since Wednesday has left thousands of people in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona displaced or facing a massive cleanup.
A river that nearly broke its record
The San Juan River is the centre of the damage. A National Weather Service gauge at Farmington, a city of about 46,000, showed the river growing 13 times larger in 36 hours. It rose from about 3.5 feet early on Thursday to 14 feet by Friday. The Associated Press says the river was forecast to crest at 31 feet on Monday, against a flood stage of 23 feet and a 1927 record of 32 feet.
Chart: GoodBad. Data from National Weather Service figures as reported by the Associated Press, 26 October 2026.
Devin Neeley, San Juan County’s information officer, describes it as a catastrophic flood of historic proportions. Fire crews, police, National Guard troops and out-of-state teams rescued between 200 and 300 residents from vehicles and rooftops, he says. Some rescues needed helicopters and amphibious vehicles because the water was so high. Farmington residents began receiving evacuation alerts on Wednesday night, and one resident told NPR the water came too fast for her sister to sandbag.
People who cannot go home
Officials want evacuated residents to stay out for now. Floodwater may carry raw sewage, fuel, pesticides and fertiliser, and gas and propane lines may be broken, the AP and NPR report. Flooded treatment plants spilled sewage in Sedona, Arizona, and elsewhere. San Juan County has no official count of damaged homes or evacuees, a spokesperson told the AP. Bluff, Utah, evacuated some residents over the weekend and let them return on Monday, though several properties there were still flooded. Hundreds were without power on Monday, and extensive damage was reported on the Hopi reservation.
One death has been reported. The AP says a woman was swept away in Santa Fe on Saturday when a family tried to drive across a flooded arroyo, and a tornado touched down in the city that night. The reservoir upstream of Farmington held most of the mountain runoff, NPR says, but two normally dry tributaries still sent surges into the city.
Roads and money
The Colorado Department of Transportation counted more than a dozen emergency closures. Three major ones remained on Sunday. A 33-mile stretch of US 160 over Wolf Creek Pass has damage in at least three places, and a section of Colorado 151 was washed away, with a temporary access road planned.
The money so far is small against the estimate. The governor signed orders releasing $8.25 million in extra state funds. Her office says the federal government has granted New Mexico’s request for an emergency declaration only in part, and the reports do not say what is left uncovered. NPR says damage assessments are only beginning to arrive from cities, towns and some of the most remote territory in the continental United States. Officials have given no dates for lifting the last evacuations or reopening the damaged highways.
