Flash Floods In Phoenix Force Dramatic Rescue Operations

David M BrooksAug 20, 2014, 04:59 IST

Phoenix, Arizona is known for sunny weather and desert heat, not an abundance of rain. But when rain does hit, the smallest amount of precipitation can quickly result in flooding as happened early Tuesday.

Heavy rainfall swamped the area, with some places in North Phoenix reporting two inches of rain in one hour, according to NBC News.

While two inches of rain may not seem that alarming in most places, this photo shows you how quickly things can get out of hand in a place not used to dealing with significant amounts of rainfall:

As the photo shows, water and sediment combined to quickly spill across Interstate 17, one of the larger interstates in Phoenix.

A school bus was captured here making its way through the flooding. School officials with the Deer Valley Unified School District told ABC 15 that there were not any students on the bus at the time. The topography of Phoenix results in low-lying areas being prone to flash floods and areas of fast-moving and sediment as this photograph of a woman being rescued in her car demonstrates. Local news station, ABC 15, covered the rescue from helicopter:

Officers with the Maricopa County Sheriff's rescue unit were able to save the woman from being buried beneath the floodwaters before noon, according to KNXV Phoenix.

The rain continued to cause problems throughout the area. Another video from around the same time as the previous video, documented the rescue of two area women and a dog from a home as responders used a helicopter to lower themselves on the woman's roof and evacuate the residents.

However, as quickly as flash flooding accumulates in the desert, the hot summer weather beings clearing out the water. Interstate 17 (shown above) had already been reopened shortly after 12 p.m. local time, according to The Weather Channel.

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Flash Floods In Phoenix Force Dramatic Rescue Operations