Flash flood warning issued for McKinley County amid monsoon storms
Floodwater hit Gallup and Zuni Pueblo roads as McKinley County faced multiple flash flood warnings, including one for Old Gallup Road and another near Hassler Valley Road.
The National Weather Service in Albuquerque issued a flash flood warning for southwestern McKinley County at 4:01 p.m. MDT July 22, with the warning set to expire at 7 p.m. A separate warning followed for central McKinley County at 4:40 p.m. MDT and ran until 7:45 p.m., then another alert at 8:51 p.m. said flood waters were receding and heavy rain had ended.
The warnings mattered immediately in Gallup, Zuni Pueblo and the roads that tie the county together. Emergency managers had already reported flash flooding with multiple road impacts in a July 21 iAlert alert, and an update that night said floodwaters continued even after the heavy rainfall had stopped. Another July 21 alert, updated at 8:45 p.m. MDT, covered Gallup and Zuni Pueblo, while KRQE said evacuations were ordered for Old Gallup Road on Zuni Pueblo because of flash flooding.
The county’s flood risk was not limited to one neighborhood or one storm cell. The 4:40 p.m. July 22 alert said Doppler radar showed thunderstorms producing heavy rain, with between 1 and 1.5 inches already fallen and rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches in an hour. A separate Forth News and National Weather Service alert for southwestern McKinley County said 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain had fallen and that road closures still needed to be heeded.
That left drivers facing the same immediate hazards McKinley County sees every monsoon season: flooded streets, fast-moving runoff in arroyos and dangerous low-water crossings. The practical response was to stay off water-covered roads, reroute travel through Gallup and the surrounding county, and watch for closures near flooded drainage channels and travel corridors. Hassler Valley Road also appeared in local coverage that day after the potable water loading station there was shut down.
The sequence of warnings showed how quickly the situation moved across the county. McKinley County Office of Emergency Management was dealing with multiple flood impacts in a short span, first in and around Zuni Pueblo and later across broader parts of the county, as storms pushed water into roads that can become impassable within minutes.
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