SPECIAL REPORT: Fighting flooding in southern Arizona

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - Turn around, don't drown. It's a common phrase when Tucson sees heavy rain.

KOLD News 13 investigated the road problems drivers face during the monsoon.

Barricades raise obstacles for Jim Slade's east-side community.

"This Rocking K area is an island with nowhere to go," Slade said.

MOBILE USERS:

Tips for driving during a rain storm can be found HERE.

Photographs of flooding in Southern Arizona can be found HERE.

He recalled his 38 years living along Old Spanish Trail, a road where rain turns many dips and washes into rivers.

"We'd been in about a week by then," Slade said, remembering one experience, "Nobody had been in or out."

For him, a fear of being stranded means wading through waters of uncertainty.

"It was concerning because if we got flooded it was hard to get in or out," Slade said. "So the doctors actually worried about my wife having this baby. We had to have her induced so we wouldn't be stuck when the time came."

The Rincon Creek on Old Spanish Trail is a wash just west of Slade's neighborhood. It's one of about 30 flood-prone areas across Pima County. When it runs, rushing water can block road access, destroy property and even take lives.

KOLD asked The Pima County Department of Transportation what it would take to fix all these areas.

"Absolutely millions," Priscilla Cornelio of Pima County DOT said. "As I said at the Rincon wash it would be at least $10 million for a long bridge."

She told us they just don't have the money.

The Regional Transportation Authority does have a plan. It cost over $2 Billion and has tackled two trouble spots.

Drivers may have seen, the county just built a bridge on La Cholla over the Canyon del Oro Wash. RTA also funded city of Tucson plans to place a crossing on Harrison Road over the Pantano Wash. Constructions starts in 2022.

However, that's where upgrades end. Most of the county's cash comes from state car licenses and an 18 cent per gallon gas tax, a price Arizona set back in 1991.

"It's been that amount for the last 25 years," Cornelio said. "During that same period, inflation has seen a 71 percent increase."

"We've gotten ourselves in bad shape and we blame the legislature," she added. "They haven't increased the gas tax to fund us."

Basic road repairs already surpass their yearly budget, so to fight street flooding, they need an even bigger boost.

In order to push for what some call a necessary change.

"We're here and we're stuck," Slade said. "I understand we moved out here and I'm good with that, but in an emergency situation we need to get out."

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