“ Did you wish for rain?”

By

Gerry Niskern

Haven’t the rains been great? Don’t you wish they would continue?

Actually, I know it’s hard to believe, but our valley of the “Sun” has had more than its share of floods. Over the last one hundred years, Arizona has had years of drought and then years of unbelievable rains.

After a particularly parched summer when I was eleven the rains finally came. We kids celebrated in our usual way. We put on our bathing suits and ran, laughing and shouting with upturned, wet faces down Jefferson Ave that flowed like a river with its high curbs.

But the rain didn’t stop and the earthen Cave Creek Dam finally gave way and a wall of water hit Phoenix. The raised Santa Fe railroad track along l9th Ave dammed the water and the State Capitol building had to be sandbagged, though the basement still filled with water. The l7th Ave underpass was flooded too: but later we kids watched in amazement as one of the army’s new amphibious vehicles loaded with soldiers drove right through on the way to Luke Field.

I remember a neighbor telling my folks, ”Back in l938, the Salt River overflowed its banks. The Central Avenue Bridge was holding the water and debris back. Central Phoenix was going to be flooded. Just as they were ready to light the fuse to dynamite the bridge, the water started to subside.”

Fortunately, much earlier in l870, the first mayor of Phoenix, John T. Alsap, had suggested the permanent town site of Phoenix be located on high ground, more than a mile north of the Salt River

Than, 20 years later, in February l890, during a long rainy spell the Salt, Gila, Santa Cruz and even the Colorado burst their banks and spread over farms along their courses. The Salt rose nearly seventeen feet and washed out the Tempe Railroad Bridge and Southern Pacific track between Tempe and Maricopa.

Sadly, most of the homes in the lower area were under water. Adobe houses melted like candy. Cattle and livestock were swept away.

Another extremely rainy year followed by rapid snow melt in the mountains and on February 18, l891, water that was 18 feet above normal did reach Washington Street. More than sixty families lost their homes. Telephone and telegraph lines were swept away.

I remember another summer, in the l970’s, when the rains were unrelenting. The ground was saturated and the overflowing canals couldn’t handle all the runoff. One Saturday morning we were rudely awakened as police cars drove through our neighborhood just south of the Arizona Canal with loudspeakers blaring “ATTENTION. PREPARE TO EVACUATE”.

Fortunately, about then, the rain stopped and the canal waters started to subside. Summer rains are great, but be careful what you wish for!