D.S. Woodfill, The Republic | azcentral.com City officials say they must reconsider everything from flood control to building codes after Monday's historic flooding that swept into scores of homes in south Phoenix.
For many of those homeowners, it was the second time in a month that floodwaters breached the natural washes and canals north of South Mountain and surged into homes. A major storm that officials deemed a 100-year event struck on Aug. 12. Some homeowners who had already renovated were faced with having to do it all again.
"It's always a good time to be thinking about having the best codes possible, the best infrastructure, the best flood control possible," Mayor Greg Stanton told reporters on Tuesday.
"I think once we get through this initial assessment period ... it will be incumbent upon all of us here to look at all of those things (and) work with Maricopa County Flood Control, the state Department of Emergency Management and say, 'How can we improve? What can we do better? What can we do to minimize the impact'?"
The admission came as officials were beginning the recovery process from Monday's storms, cleaning up streets and assessing damage to public infrastructure and homes. Besides city workers, crew members from Salt River Project, which owns several canals that breached in south Phoenix, worked to clear roads and restore driveways with dump trucks and backhoes on Tuesday. They expect the work to take up to two weeks.
Kevin Kalkbrenner, Phoenix Fire Department's assistant chief and emergency-management coordinator, said preliminary estimates of the damage to city infrastructure is $1 million. That figure came from department heads around the city, but the actual cost will likely rise significantly.
"I would say $2 million wouldn't surprise me," he said.
Some of that damage was at the light rail at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and flooding in some city buildings.
The city was still assessing how many homeowners sustained flood damage.
Officials appealed for volunteers from businesses and churches to help homeowners hit by flooding.
"Maybe you're a contractor or small business that has the skill set to help people repair damage," Stanton said."Maybe you're a church group that has a large number of volunteers ... with big hearts that want to help people. Anybody out there who wants to be helpful and supportive of people who have suffered over the last few days, please contact the recovery information center."
The city will open two such centers, where flooding victims can seek aid and get information on resources and services available to them. The city's recovery information centers will open at 8 a.m. Thursday at the Travis L. Williams Family Services Center, 4732 S. Central Avenue, and the Pecos Community Center, 17010 S 48th St. in Ahwatukee Foothills, which was also impacted by flooding.
The U.S. Small Business Administration meanwhile has already opened two centers to distribute low-interest disaster-recovery loans to residents and businesses affected by the storms.
One center is also at the Travis Williams Center and the other is at the Daisy Mountain Fire Station at 43814 N. New River Road in New River. Both centers are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
Garth MacDonald, an SBA spokesman, said loans are available with interest as low as 2.063 percent for homeowners and 4 percent for business owners.
The city already established a storm- recovery hotline at 602-534-2222.
Much of Korina Pedregon's belongings were in the front yard of her home at Ardmore Road and 27th Avenue on Tuesday. It was a mixture of things she and her family were throwing away and things that they tried to save from the flood.
She said response from the city had been slow after the first floods in August. Since then, she said life in her neighborhood has become unbearable. Trash that washed in during the storm lingers in the neighborhood and mosquitoes, flies and fire ants are a problem.
To make things worse, Pedregon said she suspects several septic tanks backed up in the first flood and that sewage water had invaded their homes.
Stephanie Romero, a city spokeswoman, said Tuesday that, because of the widespread nature of the damage, she did not immediately know what remediation efforts were being conducted in Pedregon's neighborhood.
Pedregon said mold had started growing in the walls of her house.
Pedregon said she and her neighbors have received assistance from the American Red Cross but have been mostly on their own.
Ramona Torres, who lives across the street with her daughter and grandchildren, also has mold in her walls.
"This is the way we live now," she said, gesturing to her gutted walls and the floor of her home that was still covered in a layer of dirt.
Torres said the family had pulled out much of the drywall in the house that was damaged when the rainwaters started flowing under her front door again.
"I cry a lot."
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