Rain, wind clobber Scottsdale, other parts of Phoenix area
PHOENIX — A handful of areas around metro Phoenix were hammered by driving rain and hard wind Wednesday night, leaving residents in the dark for hours and facing heavy-duty cleanup.
Trees and power lines came down in north Scottsdale, Fountain Hills, Paradise Valley, Mesa and Tempe. Gusts that whipped through Scottsdale were clocked up to 70 mph.
Over an inch of rain fell in some of those places in about an hour. Roads were closed Thursday in Scottsdale because of downed lines: Pima Road was shut down between Loop 101 and Legacy Boulevard and Scottsdale Road was closed between Williams Drive and Deer Valley Road.
More rain could be on the way, the National Weather Service said.
Salt River Project reported more than 46,000 customers were without electricity at one point.
Arizona Public Service said about 16,000 had been without power. The company said steel poles toppled along with wood poles, about 20 in all.
“We have crews working through the day (replacing poles),” APS spokeswoman Anne DeGraw said.
Tonight’s storms caused a lot of damage. Remember: If you see a line down, assume it’s energized. Call 911, then APS. Crews are working hard to restore power as safely and quickly as possible. For the latest updates: https://t.co/5krJSvqD1F. Be safe out there! #azwx #Monsoon2018 pic.twitter.com/ujawyf7vWC
— APS (@apsFYI) August 9, 2018
High winds caused multiple outages across Mesa’s electric service area.
All available personnel are responding to the outages & working to restore power as soon as possible.
The outages and the repairs needed do not appear to be as severe as the damages from the July 9 storms
— City of Mesa, Arizona (@MesaAzgov) August 9, 2018
Scottsdale Police said there were no reported injuries.
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.
