Thousands experience power outages amid heavy rain across Valley

The Valley was significantly impacted by a weather system Friday, between bogged down traffic, power outages for residents and more.

Parts of the Paradise Valley area got between 2 and 3 inches of measurable rain over a three-hour span from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., while much of north Scottsdale was between 1 and 2 inches.

An incident near 40th Street and Camelback Road left four cars stuck in water, and their six combined occupants were rescued by Phoenix Fire Department crews. That was just one area where roadways were impacted, as Apache Junction officials listed several spots that had potential flooding concerns.

As of about 8 p.m., more than 5,000 people were experiencing power outages, whether a customer of SRP or APS. Most of the issues had been resolved by 9 p.m., with about 1,000 APS customers still without power.

Earlier on Friday, a storm system warranted a ground stop and departure delays at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. There were nearly 800 total delays and seven canceled flights at the airport for the day, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.

Looking ahead to Halloween weekend weather

The National Weather Service had flash flood warnings in effect through 10 p.m. or later on Friday night, mainly to the north and northeast of Phoenix.

Officials expected the rain to calm down overnight, but said it should ramp up as Halloween activities roll around Saturday evening.

“It looks like as we head into tonight and into at least Saturday afternoon, conditions should pretty much be drier,” NWS meteorologist Gabriel Lojero told KTAR News 92.3 FM. “And then as we head into Saturday evening and mostly Sunday, we’re going to see an increase in rainfall activity.”

Lojero said a sustained, widespread amount of light-to-moderate rain could be expected from Saturday evening through Sunday, which could see “a total washout” over the day’s worth of rain.

The NWS meteorologist projected most of the activity to take place across the north and northeast areas of the Valley.

“It’s going to be a pretty substantial rainfall event. We’re talking potentially 1-2 inches of rain in the Phoenix area and then potentially up to 3-4 inches across the foothills and higher-terrain areas to the north and east of Phoenix,” Lojero said. “You have to be very careful … because that amount of rain could actually create some flooding issues.

“People are going to have to be very cautious when driving around this weekend.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Kellen Shover contributed to this report.

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