US south-west braces for more storms after enduring days of rain and flooding

Another round of heavy showers and thunderstorms were expected to hit the south-west US on Sunday after the region endured days of rain that forced evacuations, water rescues and multimillion-dollar damage.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for much of the Four Corners – the meeting point of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah – even as local officials forecast further receding of swollen rivers that surged since rains picked up on Wednesday.

About 4ft (1 meter) of water flooded the home of Shane Ferrari, the sheriff of San Juan county, New Mexico. He said the area’s situation was stable on Sunday, but he and other residents were trying to clean up and deal with damage.

The New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, said in a statement on Saturday that law enforcement officials had reported hundreds of water rescues between the cities of Farmington and Bloomfield.

Flooding in the Gould Wash drainage watercourse in Hurricane, Utah, on Thursday. Photograph: Landon Christensen/AP

“Families in Bloomfield and Farmington spent the night on rooftops watching the river flood their homes, and our national guard and state police crews have been bringing them to safety,” said Lujan Grisham. “Right now, our focus is saving lives. If you’re told to evacuate, go. Once the water recedes, the state will do everything in its power to help San Juan county families rebuild.

“No deaths have been reported,” she added.

The San Juan River in Farmington on Friday ran 2ft above its previous record set in 1909.

A San Juan county spokesperson, Devin Neeley, said the county did not have official numbers on damage to homes or the number of people evacuated, but he was not aware of any loss of life.

Pickup trucks are submerged along Highway 160 in South Fork, Colorado, on Friday. Photograph: South Fork Fire Rescue/AP

Neeley said the floodwaters were receding but left mud and silt, much of which has been contaminated with sewage because of failures at waste plants. There were still power outages affecting multiple areas, and it would probably be a few days until residents got their power back on.

“It’s a pretty active disaster zone,” he said. “We’re not on the downswing by any means.”

The flooding is just the latest from two months of on-and-off heavy rain caused by tropical moisture coming ashore from the Pacific. After months of drought, other recent deadly flooding struck the Grand Canyon and areas of New Mexico.

New Mexico has been hit with back-to-back weather events this weekend. A tornado struck Santa Fe on Saturday, damaging at least eight houses, including roof collapses, according to a statement by the city of Santa Fe. No injuries were reported.