GLOBE, Arizona: Four people died after heavy rain caused flooding in Arizona, including three in a rural 19th-century mining town where floodwaters on Friday forced people to seek safety on rooftops and washed out a propane distributorship, scattering about 1,000 tanks downtown.
About 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) of rain fell in Globe, a city of about 7,250 people about 88 miles (142 kilometers) east of Phoenix, over 24 hours and another storm moved in Saturday, temporarily halting the search for people possibly missing in the flood because of high-flowing creeks.
Streets flooded in the nearby mining town of Miami on Saturday, but no injuries were reported, Carl Melford, emergency manager in Gila County, said. Meanwhile, about 20 tourists stranded in parts of the Havasupai Reservation, including at scenic Havasu Falls, because of flooding were evacuated, Bureau of Indian Affairs dispatcher Shaileen Gonzales said.
The remote reservation reachable only by foot, mule or helicopter lies deep in a gorge off the Grand Canyon. It’s popular worldwide for its scenic, towering blue-green waterfalls but is prone to flooding.
In Globe, the bodies of two people were earlier found in a vehicle and another person was found in the floodwaters in Globe, Melford said, They were not immediately identified by authorities.
Another person was found dead Saturday morning near a vehicle caught in floodwaters in suburban Phoenix the night before. The vehicle appeared to be empty after it was spotted partially submerged in about 8 feet (2.4 meters) of fast-moving water on Friday evening in a greenbelt park area, the Scottsdale Fire Department said. After the water dropped a bit overnight, crews found the body of a person pinned underneath a walkway bridge, the department said.
In the rural community of Globe, one of Arizona’s oldest mining towns, sheriffs’ officials were looking into reports of people who may be missing, Melford said, but could not specify a number.
“We now have a massive search and rescue underway,” he said.
Rain poured down and quickly flooded the downtown area Friday, Melford said. One of the first areas hit was a propane tank distributor, sending about 1,000 residential-size tanks throughout the community, he said.
“There’s propane tanks everywhere through downtown Globe,” he said, adding that hazmat workers have been sent to the scene. “Luckily none of them ignited or exploded.”
The area previously experienced flooding in 2021 after a wildfire, but it didn’t happen like this, Melford said. The city is near canyons that can funnel water from the mountains into the community very quickly.
“This was an extremely heavy amount of rain in an extremely short period of time,” he said.
Videos shared on social media show vehicles in Globe being swept away by rushing, muddy water, with some smashed up against poles and large propane tanks scattered around.
Authorities are asking residents to not go out searching in the floodwaters because search and rescue officials are accompanied by dogs who might pick up the scent of aspiring volunteers instead of possible flood victims. If people want to help, they should start by assisting friends and neighbors in need, Melford said.
Globe city council members declared an emergency, saying they have never seen anything like the flooding.
Scores of people have stepped up to volunteer, said Mayor Al Gameros, adding that many buildings in the community’s downtown have been damaged. Officials asked people to stay away from the area until they could ensure it is safe to go in there.
“Our primary, again, is search and rescue,” Gameros said Saturday.
4 dead after flooding in Arizona, including in historic mining town
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4 dead after flooding in Arizona, including in historic mining town
- Four people have died after heavy rain caused flooding in Arizona, including three in a rural 19th-century mining town where floodwaters forced people to seek safety on their rooftops
Crime, immigration dominate as Chile votes for president
- Chileans are also choosing members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate
- A sharp increase in violent crime has sown terror in one of Latin America’s safest nations
SANTIAGO: Chileans stood in long lines on Sunday to vote in general elections dominated by far-right calls for an iron fist on crime and mass migrant deportations.
Pre-election polls showed the main left-wing candidate, Jeannette Jara, a 51-year-old communist running on behalf of a broad coalition, winning the first round of voting for president.
But far-right leader Jose Antonio Kast is tipped to prevail in December’s run-off with Donald Trump-style plans to expel all illegal migrants.
Chileans are also choosing members of the Chamber of Deputies and Senate in the first general elections with compulsory voting since 2012.
Results are expected within two hours of polls closing at 4:00 p.m. (1900 GMT).
A sharp increase in murders, kidnappings and extortion over the past decade has sown terror in what is still one of Latin America’s safest nations.
- Shot for a gold chain -
“Just a few steps from my house, a young boy was recently killed because he was wearing a gold chain; he was shot. And three years ago, on my street, a young girl was almost kidnapped,” Rosario Isidora Herrera Munoz, who voted in Santiago with her six-month-old baby, told AFP.
“I hope that some day we’ll go back to the way we were before,” said Mario Faundez, an 87-year-old retired salesman.
“If we have to kill (criminals), so be it,” he added.
Jara on Sunday accused her rivals of “exacerbating fear” and spreading “hate,” and said their proposals did not amount to a full plan for governing.
The vote is seen as a litmus test for South America’s left, which has been sent packing in Argentina and Bolivia, and faces a stiff challenge in Colombian and Brazilian elections next year.
Jara served as labor minister under outgoing center-left president Gabriel Boric, who cannot run for a second consecutive term.
Ultra-right candidate Johannes Kaiser, who was closing in on Jara and Kast in the final days of campaigning, told AFP the election was about ending Latin America’s “disconnection...from the United States and the free world.”
- Walls, fences, trenches -
Despite a declining murder rate, Chileans remain transfixed by the growing violence of criminals, which they blame on the arrival of gangs from Venezuela and elsewhere.
Kast has vowed to build walls, fences and trenches along Chile’s border with Bolivia to keep out newcomers from poorer countries to the north, such as Venezuela.
Maite Sanchez, a 34-year-old Cuban living legally in Chile, expressed dismay on Sunday over the demonization of migrants “who did things properly, arrived with the right paperwork...and are contributing to the country.
Former YouTube polemicist Kaiser, a fan of Argentina’s Javier Milei, is the most radical of the candidates.
The 49-year-old libertarian MP energized youth voters with rock-themed rallies and blunt language about crime, immigration and the left.
Conservative ex-minister Evelyn Matthei, the 72-year-old establishment choice, struggled to make her mark on the campaign.
- Uphill battle -
Jara faces an uphill battle to overcome strong anti-communist and anti-incumbent sentiment.
Boric defeated Kast in 2021 on a promise to establish a welfare state after mass demonstrations in 2019 over inequality.
But his presidency was fatally weakened after voters massively rejected a progressive new constitution that he had backed.
Jara campaigned as a moderate with a track record of social reforms — she lowered the working week from 45 hours to 40 and raised the minimum wage — and vowing to ensure “every Chilean family can easily make it to the end of the month.”
Patricia Orellana, a 56-year-old Jara voter, said she feared a rollback in women’s rights if Kast or Kaiser, both of whom oppose abortion, won.
Kast, if elected, would be the first far-right leader since the 1973-1990 military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
The son of a German soldier in Hitler’s Nazi army, Kast has defended Pinochet, who overthrew a democratically elected socialist president in 1973 and oversaw a regime that killed thousands of dissidents.
