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If Charles Dickens had written a book entitled “A Tale of Two Counties,” it could easily have been about the impacts of recent thunderstorms in Graham and Greenlee counties.

Heavy monsoon rains Sunday and Monday night walloped areas of Greenlee while Graham emerged relatively unscathed.

Greenlee County Administrator Derek Rapier said cleanup was still underway in the Morenci-Clifton area, where at least 2 inches of rain fell in about an hour Sunday night. The subsequent flooding created rock slides and mudflows that closed railroad tracks and roads in the area and delayed the opening of Morenci schools.

Rapier didn’t have an estimate on the damage due to much of it being located on Freeport-McMoRan property or within Clifton city limits; however, he reported all roads were reopened as of Wednesday. He also said he knew of no reported injuries from the flooding.

Sunday’s deluge was followed with a similar downpour in Duncan, which overflowed washes and streams and caused localized flooding.

“There were a couple of houses where they had some water in the home, but nothing terribly damaging,” he said. “But there was debris on the Highway 70 just southeast of Duncan, and there was some localized road flooding. We had our county road crews out both nights in the Duncan area. The (state) highway department had a road crew out as well.”

Meanwhile, the rains’ impact on Graham County was considerably less messy. County Manage Dustin Welker said no flooding or storm damage was reported after heavy rains Monday night.

“We had some of our larger washes flow through low-water crossings, which is expected and normal with around a 1-inch storm,” he said. “There are a number of low-water crossings on Safford-Bryce Road, and we have water-level gauges in those crossings as well as warning signage to not enter when the washes are running leading up to those. Our crews were out early in the morning checking all our normal areas and did a great job working quickly to clear any rocks or debris on the road that was left over from the storm.”

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