Phoenix area wakes to clean up mess from big storm

PHOENIX — A long day has begun for emergency services crews and a lot of others Tuesday after a powerful storm ripped across and ripped up the Valley.

Homes and businesses were without power, traffic lights were out and trees were down from New River to the East Valley after Monday night’s big hit.

At least 10,000 Salt River Project customers were still in the dark and 31,000 Arizona Public Service customers were as well. SRP expects nearly all customers to have power restored by 1 p.m.

SRP will give out ice starting at 9 a.m. at the QuikTrip store at 2941 East Indian School Road.

That was good news — right after the storm 50,000 APS customers had lost power. Some still may not have electricity for another day.

The news wasn’t so good for St. Mary’s Food Bank. The nonprofit was without power and staff scrambled to fill refrigerated trucks with food to prevent spoilage.

One family was displaced by the storm after the roof blew off their home near 27th Avenue and Roosevelt Street. The Red Cross provided the family with shelter, clothing and food.

The Red Cross opened a shelter at Griffith Elementary School near McDowell Road and 44th Street on Tuesday for anyone needing to stay overnight.

The Phoenix Veterans Administration hospital sustained damage to at least 35 patient rooms. As a result, some patients were transferred to other hospitals, procedures were canceled and admissions were halted.

Some schools were closed for the day while others were forced into late starts.

Five schools in the Phoenix Elementary School District were closed because of storm damage: Garfield Heard, Kenilworth, Magnet Traditional and Whittier.

The Phoenix Union High School District posted to Facebook that power outages had pushed classes at Bioscience, Bostrom, Desiderata and Metro Tech high schools to 10 a.m. starts.

The storm even found first responders at their base, blowing through Phoenix Fire Department Station 1 at Fourth Avenue near Van Buren Street.

Kevin Kalkbrenner with the city said police reported 509 incidents while 582 calls were placed to the fire department.

The hard rain created ponds where none had existed before. Encanto Park, which already has a lake, suddenly had another body of water:

The Phoenix Zoo said it would remain closed through Thursday to clean up. A spokeswoman said the animals were safe. Multiple other city facilities were damaged, including Terminal 3 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

“We got hit hard last night,” Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said.

Phoenix setup a special number for those who need to report storm damage or need assistance: 602-534-2222.

As of 6 a.m., the Arizona Department of Transportation reported traffic signals were out at the following freeway-related intersections:

• Interstate 10 at 19th, 27th and 35th avenues

• Interstate 17 at Buckeye and Thomas roads, 19th Avenue and Grant Street

• Loop 202 at 24th Street

• Loop 101 at Indian School Road

If you can delay your drive to work or telecommute today, that would give crews a little more room to restore services this morning. Thanks.

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) September 1, 2015

The National Weather Service reported that there would be a break in storm weather, at least until possibly Wednesday.

Somewhat drier air to reduce tstorms today A return of moisture to increase tstorm chances on Wed and Thu. #azwx pic.twitter.com/5aTzGboEVU

— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) September 1, 2015

From 7PM to 9PM last night, there were nearly 4,000 in-cloud lightning flashes over Phoenix – avg one every two seconds! #azwx

— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) September 1, 2015

 

KTAR’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.

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