Cleanup continues after rains flood communities south of Valley

ARIZONA CITY, AZ - Sandra Hetrick has a lot of cleaning up to do around her Arizona City home after several inches of dirty water poured in during Wednesday's heavy rains. 

"I could never picture it flooded until yesterday, and then it was like a lake," she said. Hetrick is ripping up the carpet and is looking at replacing items that got wet.

"The wood down here is already popping and the water has come up to here on the appliances. The boards are starting to split, so we'll have new cabinets put in," she said.

She said the effects of the latest monsoon will be felt for some time.

"Now they are going to do their thing and it's going to take four to six weeks of fixing the house and replacing everything," she said. 

Fortunately, Hetrick has flood insurance, which will cover a lot of the damage. For her, the flooding didn't come as a big surprise.

"The mortgage company told me that, and also the previous owners, that it had flooded here twice before," she said.

Pinal County officials said this is a known low spot, and is subject to collecting water.

"This area is known for flooding, and yesterday it did flood out a bit with all that rain-water," spokesperson, Joe Pyritz said.

Dozens of streets were submerged from Arizona City to Casa Grande as runoff drained in from washes.

Officials said there's little that can be done to re-engineer the area.

"When you dump 3.5, 1.5 inches in an hour, the ground cannot soak up that much water that fast, so it's got to go somewhere," Pyritz said.