Labor Day Storm of 1970

In regards to yesterday's post, there was an article in the Arizona Republic today. The title of the article was "1970 storm drenched Arizona, left 23 dead in its wake" The story reads "...it is time to recall the deadliest weather event in recorded Arizona history, 39 years ago this weekend. On Sept 4-5, 1970, the remnants of Hurricane Norma swept over the state. It is most commonly recalled as the Labor Day Storm of 1970. It set off severe flooding, mostly in the central part of the state. Twenty-three people were killed... In other words, many parts of the state got as much rain in 24 hours as they would normally get in a year. Tropical storms have hit Arizona with heavy rains many times, but none was as deadly as the storm of 1970." These heavy rain caused the SRP canal north of our home to overflow, break and then flood a large area including the area where our house was located. Sid had left the hospital where I was with baby Mike to go home and watch an evening football game - Dallas vs Someone. Dallas was his favorite team at the time. He fell asleep watching the game and work up to Snoopy (our Smart Dog) scratching frantically at the back door, which had high steps leading to it. He went to see what the problem was and saw that our entire back yard was flooded (and Snoopy was having to swim to stay above water). He quickly opened the side gate and the water rushed out of the back yard. By doing that, he saved our home from being flooded. Every other house in our neighborhood was flooded with a lot of water damage done inside the home. I don't think I could have faced coming home with a new baby to a house with such terrible water damage inside - fortunately, I didn't have to. This is a picture of the Salt River flooding up to the Sun Devil stadium, usually a good distance away.