A series of tropical storms raised as hurricanes in the Pacific pushed enough moisture into Arizona this past year to collect around 10 inches of rain overall and cause damage in the community totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On a couple of occasions in July and August the summer monsoon pattern stretched over several days. The passing of a couple of storms in July left upwards of an inch of rain for each event, stirred wind gusts to 50 miles per hour and left a wake of uprooted trees to clean up – and this was just the beginning.

In early August a tropical storm moved ashore and across Arizona, bringing with it a series of monsoon events stretching from mid-week through the weekend. Up to three inches of rain fell in parts of Fountain Hills over the week and wind gusts topped at about 60 miles per hour. It was the climax of this system on Sunday afternoon that toppled a 60-foot eucalyptus tree in the Avenue of the Fountain Plaza. The top of the tree fell across the street, ending within feet of the front door of Town Hall. Fortunately, other than the clean-up and street closure, the tree toppling caused no significant damage.

However, the cumulative impact of the stormy summer was adding up and in September Town Manager Grady Miller reported to the Town Council on the damage.

Miller said that by mid-September the town had made $80,000 in insurance claims for storm damage, after a $10,000 deductible. The costs included clean-up, emergency response for debris removal and damage to shade canopies in parks, fencing and public art pieces.

There was also the cost to address a new concern from the eucalyptus toppling. Miller told the council he was worried that two other similar trees on the Avenue might also be prone to falling in a storm. He proposed that the town simply remove those trees and the danger that goes with them. That was at a cost of about $13,000 total.

The real damage was yet to come, however.

Early October brought another series of storms spawned by another hurricane, Rosa. Rain gauges around town indicated that the town received up to five inches of rain by the middle of the month and a good portion of that fell in about a one-hour period on a Tuesday evening.

The heavy rains falling in the McDowell Mountains flowed downstream into the town and collected behind the detention dam at Golden Eagle Park. There was enough water and debris that it clogged up the outlets at the dam and backed water three to six feet deep across the three ball fields in Golden Eagle Park. It also flooded other portions of the park and the lower section of the restroom and control building where power equipment for maintenance was stored.

The restoration of the ball fields and improvements to the drainage is what is quickly increasing the price tag for the damages. Since the park was designed as a detention basin and is in the flood plain, there is no insurance help.

Work will continue into the new year before three of the four ball fields will reopen for activity. The fourth had little damage and was reopened fairly quickly. Improvements will also include previously planned repairs to backstops, fencing and concrete walkways.

The wash channels are being dredged and will be lined with rock rip-rap to contain future runoff.

The total price tag won’t be known until the work is done, but it will easily stretch into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and at the cost of deferring other capital projects and routine storm drainage infrastructure maintenance.