Severe thunderstorm causes flooding and power outages

A storm with heavy rain and high winds rolled through Yuma County late Thursday afternoon, causing damage and knocking out power in several areas, including the entire town of San Luis, Ariz.

Arizona Public Service spokeswoman Jenna Henry said there were also reports of widespread outages in Yuma and Somerton as well.

"We don't have a customer count yet or the boundaries, but we do have some poles down," Henry said. "But workers are responding and trying to get the power back on."

Henry reported at about 6:30 p.m. that seven power poles had been knocked down in the city of San Luis. Later Thursday, the number of poles was upped to 26 with seven main lines impacted.

Sixty-five percent of San Luis was without power as of 9:15 p.m., according to San Luis City Councilmen Rafael Torres. The council declared a state of emergency at a meeting Thursday evening.

Anyone needing immediate help is asked to call 627-8881 or go to the San Luis Fire Department, 1165 McCain St. Red Cross was staging at the fire station until a shelter opened. As of 10 p.m. Thursday, the plan was to open the shelter at Gadsden School.

Schools in Gadsden School District will not be in session on Friday, Torres said.

APS official Jim Valenzuela told San Luis officials that customers would be without power until around noon Friday.

Luis Cebreras, spokesman for the San Luis Fire Department, said they did not have any storm-related calls for service, but described the storm as intense.

"There was dust, wind, rain and lightning," Cebreras said. "The storm only last a few minutes and left as quick as it appeared."

San Luis police officer Luis Marquez told The Sun that based on radio calls around 5:30, that power was out in San Luis north of Juan Sanchez Boulevard between 10th Avenue and 4th Avenue and on the city's west side from Los Orros to Los Jaridenes.

"The traffic signal at 8th Avenue is out so we set up some temporary stop signs," Marquez said. "APS is aware of the outages but it is unknown at this time when they will have power restored."

Marquez also said that the storm blew a carport off a residence in the 300 block of San Felipe. He reported there was also a downed power line along the canal, north of the Wal-Mart.

As the storm made its way across Yuma County the National Weather Service lost the use of a radar tool here due to the power outages, said Jessica Nolte, a NWS meteorologist in Phoenix. It went down at about 4:50 p.m.

As of 5 p.m., one-tenth of an inch of rain was recorded at NWS reporting station at the Yuma Airport, Nolte said.

"It doesn't look like the majority of it hit in the area of the airport," Nolte said. "It looks like the majority of the activity was over San Luis and Somerton."

Wind gusts reached 43 mph at the airport and visibility was reduced to 1.5 miles, Nolte said.

Mike Erfert, spokesman for the Yuma Fire Department, said they have responded to several weather-related calls for service since 5 p.m., shortly after the storm hit Yuma.

"It has been pretty standard stuff for us so far," Erfert said. "Calls for down power lines, power pole fires and trees on fire."

The storm hit Yuma Proving Ground earlier in the day, knocking out power for about an hour and a half, according to spokesman Chuck Wullenjohn.

Wullenjohn said while the storm did not cause any major damage, it may have caused some of the roads on the bases ranges to be closed due to water in the washes, but he did not have any information about it at the time.

Rural/Metro Fire Marshal Curt Foster said his agency only received one storm-related call, and that was for downed power lines at Avenue B and 8th Street, in the area that used to be the Sheltering Palms RV Park.

"For a storm it was pretty quiet for us," Foster said.

Foster said the downed power line caused a cluster of palm trees at the site to catch fire, with a singe engine responding to the call.

Bob Smerbeck, senior meteorologist at Accuweather.com, said Thursday the odds were not good for more showers this weekend.

Yet, according to Smerbeck, the chances of actual rainfall would be greater in Baja California and in western California this weekend.

What Yumans can expect are alternating periods of clouds and sunshine, he said, with cloud cover expected to increase day by day into the weekend, he said.

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James Gilbert can be reached at @yumasun.com or 539-6854. Sun staff writer Erin Orozco contributed to this report.