APACHE JUNCTION, AZ — Monsoon storms ripped through Apache Junction Thursday afternoon, causing flash flooding and leaving tons of damage behind.
Residents woke up Friday morning with lots of cleanup work to do.
North Cortez Road was still shut down Friday as the pavement was broken and buckled. City crews were hard at work in heavy equipment, moving sand and making repairs.
"It doesn't even look like we have a road now because of what's happened," said Ashley Anderson.
Anderson walks the area with her dog, Jasper, nearly every day. She says the flooding yesterday was incredible and dangerous.
"It was like white water rapids," she said.
Joe Melendez lives along Cortez Road. He watched car after car get stuck while trying to pass through the flooded-out roadway Thursday night. So much debris left behind, it buried his wire fence, and the quicker he can fix it the better.
"We have horses right up here, and now we have to keep them in the stall otherwise they'll take off," Melendez said.
Business owner Chris Sepic got hit hard. The rushing floodwaters washed away critical equipment for his diesel repair company, Rude Diesel.
He and his dog Sausage woke up Friday to a muddy mess.
"We had a ton of stuff here, most of it got swept away except for the barrel and this random stuff," Sepic said.
But he says neighbors stepped into corral animals and lend a helping hand, the scene reminding him of storms past.
"This is the worst one. They call them hundred-year floods, but apparently they're every five years. We had one just like this in 2017," he said.
Sepic and his neighbors have been left with months' worth of cleanup this time around and plenty of insurance claims ahead.
