At least two people were killed in the rushing floodwaters from Monday's storms.
One was a 76-year-old passenger in a vehicle driven by her husband, which was swept down a wash in Oracle Junction. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the woman, who could not swim, was a passenger in a vehicle driven by her 69-year-old husband, which began to float downstream as they tried to drive through the fast-moving water of Cadillac Wash.
“The vehicle was swept a quarter mile down the wash. The 76-year-old woman was washed another quarter mile beyond the vehicle, so an entire half a mile away,” Babeu said.
The man told sheriff’s deputies when their vehicle began to float they got out and he was able to make it to shore. His wife was swept away.
The other was a woman trapped in a vehicle in a running wash in Tucson.
Captain Barrett Baker of the fire department says the woman, in her 50s, was washed downstream just after firefighters arrived on the scene and it took some time to locate the vehicle again.
“We could not get a visual on where the car ended up for probably 30 to 45 minutes, there was so much water that was flowing, and probably a good ten to twelve feet of water, almost up to 15 feet,” Baker said.
Baker said the vehicle was washed downstream within about a minute of the time firefighters arrived. He said it was several blocks downstream by the time it stopped.