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Storm hits hard with wind, rain

Posted 8/9/18

Fountain Hills seems to have caught the brunt of a monsoon storm that burst into the Valley Wednesday evening.

Wind gusts up to 62 miles per hour blew over the rain gauge at Fountain Park and …

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Storm hits hard with wind, rain

Posted

Fountain Hills seems to have caught the brunt of a monsoon storm that burst into the Valley Wednesday evening.

Wind gusts up to 62 miles per hour blew over the rain gauge at Fountain Park and nearly took the steel door off the pump house in the park, according to park personnel.

Maricopa County Flood Control District has nine rainfall monitoring sites within Fountain Hills and all but one collected more than an inch of rain during the storm. The exception was at Fire Station #1 on Palisades Boulevard where .71 inch was collected.

The greatest amount received was the rain gauge on Hesperus Wash near the northwest corner of town where 1.89 inch of rain fell. At Stone Ridge Dam, just west of Fountain Hills Boulevard near Cholla Drive, the monitoring site received 1.30 inch.

A rain gauge outside The Times office on Laser Drive collected an even inch of rain.

As with earlier storms, there was considerable damage to trees, either uprooted or limbs lost, and the considerable rain running off through the washes left debris several feet deep at some wash crossings at the north end of town. Town crews were out all night cutting trees and shoveling debris to clear the streets, according to Public Works Director Justin Weldy.

County crews were out on Thursday morning clearing sand and debris from McDowell Mountain Road between Fountain Hills and Rio Verde. Flood Control District monitoring equipment recorded a peak flow of 140 cubic feet per second in a wash that crosses McDowell Mountain Road.

Forecasters are urging people to brace for more of the same in coming days and through the end of the monsoon.