August 11, 2005
Holly Johnson and Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic

Photo: Summer Martinez (left) and her mom, Sue Martinez, look at a fissure that opened up near Summer's Queen Creek home after Tuesday's rains, frightening homeowners.

In a small canyon miles north of Phoenix, a little girl slipped away.

It seemed improbable: Moments earlier, Marissa Sabrina Reyes, 7, was sitting with her grandparents, mother and infant sibling at the family's home north of Carefree.

Then the walls of water came: 12- to 15-foot waves that crashed through the small canyon where their house was perched, ripping Marissa from the hands that were grasping to help her.

Wednesday, a day after a torrential monsoon storm devastated parts of the Valley, searchers recovered Marissa's body about 1 1⁄2 miles from where she was last seen alive.

Tuesday's storm hit particularly hard, killing not only Marissa but also a 65-year-old man who was trapped in his overturned truck when water suddenly raged through a river near an Interstate 17 frontage road.

The storm opened a gaping fissure up to 25 feet deep along a residential street in Queen Creek, leaving frightened homeowners concerned about how much more of their land will collapse. And in Mesa, a rare form of lightning damaged 13 homes.

The flash floods and monsoon storms caused numerous flight delays at Sky Harbor International Airport on Tuesday and again on Wednesday morning.

Sky Harbor spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said flights were delayed about 30 minutes on Wednesday morning as air traffic controllers increased the space between planes taking off and landing because of reduced visibility.

"On a normal morning, we can land up to 70 planes during our busiest times," Rodriguez said. "This morning, we dropped that to about 40."

Marissa's home was near Seven Springs in an area scorched last month by the "Cave Creek Complex" fire. The burned land couldn't absorb the cascades of water that traversed steeply sloping hills at incredibly high speeds and pressure.

Photo: Seven-year-old Marissa Reyes died after being swept away from her family in a 15-foot wall of water.

"When an area burns, the soil isn't able to hold water," said Vinnie Picard of the Tonto National Forest. "The ground becomes really saturated, and there's less ground cover to retain water. So you get more runoff, faster-running water that's carrying a lot of stuff with it."

"It was unbelievable," said Larry Steinegger, whose family has owned the land for a century where the Reyes family was living. "There were cars everywhere, things washing down and away. . . . She was just a great child. As good as can be."

The ground search for Marissa was called off around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, amid concerns that the same fate could befall deputies looking for the little girl. An air search continued through the night.

"I was just here Saturday, dirt-biking," said Brian Day, a friend of Marissa's family. "I saw her then. She was just a happy, beautiful little girl. Our daughters played together. This is just terrible."

The flash floods are blamed for the death of Wayne Wilson, who was killed when raging waters rushed down New River along an I-17 frontage road. Wilson was behind the wheel of a pickup truck, pulling a horse trailer, when he was swept away and drowned inside his truck. The horses were rescued.

Wilson was remembered Wednesday as an avid horseman who served for years as a leader of the Desert Foothills Community Association, a group that organizes the annual Cave Creek Fiesta Days Rodeo and other events.

"He loved everybody," said Peggy Dyer Brock, who writes a horse column for the Sonoran News, a Cave Creek newspaper. "He was a quiet man but outspoken as a leader would be. He treated everybody like his brother or sister. I can't believe he's gone."

Tuesday night's deadly storm came together when two separate storms collided over Phoenix.

On Wednesday, some experts theorized the lightning strike in Mesa was "positive lightning," a rare form that originates near the top of a thunderstorm instead of under the base and delivers far more voltage. It exploded underground wires, spewed dirt and debris like volcanic ash and charred areas around brass doorknobs and locks as if someone had burned them with a blowtorch.

The Southwestern desert's summer thunderstorm season is one of the least-understood weather phenomena in North America, and monsoon storms, which gather within hours, are simply hard to predict.

"I don't think anybody can really judge the strength of it," said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. "It's definitely been surprising how active it's been."

In the first 10 days of this month, Phoenix has had more rain than it normally has in all of August. Sky Harbor has recorded 1.18 inches of rain this month. Normal for the first 10 days of this month is 0.28 inch. Rainfall for the entire month of August usually averages 0.94 inch.

Phoenix recorded at least a trace amount of rain for 11 days straight, starting July 30. That's the longest stretch of continuous rain in any summer on record, Kittell said.

Drier air should move into the state by the beginning of next week, but rain remains in the forecast at least through the weekend.

That could be bad news for Donnie Doss of Queen Creek. Tuesday night, Doss watched his front yard crumble and fall underground when a fissure, 5 to 10 feet wide in some places and up to 25 feet deep, opened along his street.

The fissure could split farther with more rain.

As sprinkles fell Wednesday morning, Doss realized wood planks he bought to serve as a makeshift bridge to his home were too short.

Next door, Summer Martinez and Bud Marshall worried about their house, too.

"Every time it rains," Martinez said, "we're probably going to be crossing our fingers."

Reporters Brent Whiting, Lisa Nicita, Michael Ferraresi, Ginger D. Richardson and Art Thomason contributed to this article.

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