Peoria man scrambles to move animals after storms flood backyard

PEORIA, AZ - After much rain fell Tuesday night, a stream flowed behind several homes in Peoria.

It was so powerful it knocked down a cinder block wall and flooded a man's backyard.

Pat Phillips rescues abandoned animals. " We've lived out here 32 years and it's never been like this, never," said Phillips.

He spent the morning sloshing through a muddy mess in his backyard. His shed and animal's pens flooded from Tuesday night's storms.

"We're at the end of the street, so all the water flows down Mariposa Grande and 67th Avenue, right into our homes," he said.

It also flows right into the corrals. His horses were ankle deep in water. Even the pig's pen was too muddy and the big guy had to share space with the goats.

"Fortunately my chickens weren't floating this morning," said his neighbor Erin DeLung.

Luckily she was willing to lend a helping hand and higher ground. "It is a mess, it's a big mess and usually we're cleaning up quite this bad," DeLung said.

Her backyard offers a safe and dry place for the horses now, but it's a waiting game for folks in the neighborhood.

They wonder if everything will dry up or if another storm will send them scrambling once again.

"What I'm thinking about now is what about tonight? What are we going to do for tonight? What are we going to do when it start raining? This is just going to get worse," said Phillips.