Four Corners Flooding Leaves Historic Damage Across San Juan Basin

Intense El Niño-linked storms last week caused catastrophic flooding across the San Juan Basin in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, swamping towns and threatening critical infrastructure.

In Farmington, New Mexico, the San Juan River surged from about 3.5 feet early Thursday, October 22, 2026, to roughly 14 feet by Friday, inundating multiple neighborhoods. San Juan County officials called the event a "catastrophic, historic flood" and said the river was wider than in living memory.

Intense storms linked to the El Niño pattern swept the Four Corners region last week, driving heavy rain and runoff that overwhelmed river channels across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona. Towns along the San Juan and Rio Grande reported neighborhoods under several feet of water and significant infrastructure damage, while flooding also triggered sewage spills and drinking-water concerns in parts of Arizona.

Preliminary damage estimates for New Mexico alone run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, a figure state officials and insurance analysts are still refining.^[1] Emergency crews continue water rescues and damage assessments across the basin as officials prioritize restoring drinking water and repairing roads and sewers.

1. NPR