Tempe mayor to declare state of emergency after microburst, says residents are ‘traumatized’

PHOENIX — Tempe Mayor Corey Woods is planning to sign a state of emergency for his city on Wednesday, following a devastating microburst that blasted through the city on Monday.

Woods said it was the worst storm he’s seen in the town since he moved there and that many residents are traumatized by the destruction.

“We have a lot of residents in Tempe who are very much traumatized by the situation. So we are doing everything we can to assist them during what is a very, very challenging time,” Woods said on Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos.

“It was a substantial amount of damage, frankly, to homes and trees and just sort of the overall landscape. So it’s going to take some time to really restore everything to where it was before.”

The American Red Cross and Maricopa County Emergency Management are chipping in with the recovery efforts.

An emergency shelter was set up on Monday at the Escalante Multigenerational Center for those displaced and in need of essentials because of the storm.

Woods said an industrial park that housed 64 small businesses had its roof “ripped clean off the facility.”

“For those businesses, they are clearly not going to be able to operate in their current building without the use of a roof. So, they’re currently now looking for new places to maybe temporarily relocate their businesses so they can stay functional while that industrial park is repaired,” Woods said.

City Manager Rosa Inchausti added in a release that nine apartment buildings and several other homes are now uninhabitable.

Closures in Tempe due to storms

Along with businesses and homes that are uninhabitable, many facilities in the area are closed.

Those include the following:

• Jaycee Park Splash Pad
• Palmer Park playground
• Clark Park dog park
• Kiwanis Park north parking lot and pathway
• Kiwanis Tennis Center courts (damaged from a previous storm)

Emergency calls

Inchausti said that during a typical day, emergency teams respond to 80 calls per day.

On Monday, those calls more than doubled to 170.

“The scope and severity of the damage have required additional assistance at the county and state level,” she said in a release.

For those in need of resources, a website has been set up to find and obtain those items.

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