‘Completely destroyed’: 5-foot flash floods overwhelm Prescott Valley neighborhood

PRESCOTT VALLEY, AZ (AZFamily) — People in Yavapai County are cleaning up after monsoon storms caused severe flooding in the area Monday afternoon.

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Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority said around 5 p.m. that crews responded to multiple areas with severe flooding north of Prescott Valley.

In the area of Fulton Drive and Roundup Drive, witnesses said the water was more than five feet high.

The flash floods were so powerful that they moved four shipping containers belonging to Yavapai Mechanical across the neighborhood. Around 8 p.m., crews were trying to move them back to the lot they belonged in. One of the shipping containers was miles down the road.

On Tuesday morning, residents and crews woke up to a muddy mess. Some neighbors told Arizona’s Family that it had been nine years since the area last flooded.

Floodwaters caused one shipping container to end up in front of an apartment complex. Some residents were busy digging their vehicles out of the mud, while the flooding moved other cars away from the complex.

One woman said she was at work when the flooding happened and came home to devastation.

“It’s completely destroyed. Completely flooded. All mud, our whole apartment was mud. We didn’t even know this was a flood zone. We didn’t even know,” she said.

Pools of brown, muddy water covered the floors of many residents’ vehicles.

Jamie Bussett, one of the many people affected by the devastating floodwaters, said in 20 years of living in Prescott Valley, she has never seen anything like this storm.

“Not this bad. Like, we usually get good monsoons, which we haven’t had one probably since 2019. But I’ve never, ever seen flooding like this in Prescott Valley,” she explained.

The mother said she was picking up her husband from work in Prescott when her son saw the rising waters.

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“My daughter had just gotten here and my son had heard something. And then he looked towards viewpoint and told, like, screamed at her to get in the house. And the water just came rushing through,” she described.

The powerful storm left Bussett’s apartment covered in mud, and her daughter’s car with pools of water inside.

“Pretty much everything that we had downstairs is ruined. It’s done,” she said.

Now, the leftover damage has raised questions about insurance coverage for Bussett.

“I don’t even know if this place is covered under insurance because I tried to get insurance through my insurance company that my car and my husband’s vehicle is insured through, and they denied us renters insurance,” she explained.

“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to replace all of it. Because as it is, we’re struggling to make ends meet as it is. This was like a big, huge punch in the gut that we didn’t need because, like I said, we’re already struggling,” she added.

Other neighbors had been outside since 2 a.m. Monday cleaning out apartments and vehicles. Some were taking wet car seats out of their vehicles to scoop out puddles and mud.

Flooded areas included Roundup Drive between Viewpoint Drive and Robert Road, as well as a section of Prescott Valley north of Spouse and Roundup.

Central Arizona Fire said its crews responded to three water rescues in Prescott Valley. All were single-vehicle rescues with only the driver involved.

Drivers are advised to “Turn Around, Don’t Drown” by not driving through flooded roads or around barricades.

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