Floodwaters tore through four Southwestern states over the weekend and a tornado touched down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as days of relentless rain pushed rivers to the brink across the Four Corners region, forcing water rescues, mass evacuations and a growing push for federal disaster aid.

Rain that began Wednesday sent the San Juan River and other waterways surging in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah, according to an Associated Press report carried by NBC News. In Bloomfield, New Mexico, the river rose roughly four feet in just 30 to 40 minutes, swamping one family's property under at least 18 inches of water and sweeping away 22 of their 24 backyard chickens before they fled to a hotel with their two young children.

In San Juan County, where Farmington is the county seat, hundreds of residents remained evacuated Sunday and without power. Sheriff Shane Ferrari said about four feet of water had filled his own home. County spokesperson Devin Neeley described the scene bluntly.

"IT'S A PRETTY ACTIVE DISASTER ZONE."

A tornado adds to the chaos

The flooding was compounded Saturday night when a tornado touched down around 7 p.m. in Santa Fe's Rancho Siringo neighborhood, damaging multiple homes and downing trees and power lines that knocked out electricity to several hundred customers, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. City officials confirmed the touchdown and urged residents to stay off flooded roads and away from arroyos as a separate swift-water rescue played out along the Santa Fe River and stranded motorists on Interstate 25. No injuries were reported from the twister, and forecasters were still checking whether additional tornadoes had struck elsewhere in the state.

Across the border in southwestern Colorado, Archuleta County Sheriff Mike Le Roux called the flood damage "catastrophic" as crews conducted aerial surveys and welfare checks Sunday; no injuries or deaths had been confirmed there by evening. On the Navajo Nation near Shiprock, New Mexico, flooding damaged wastewater facilities and holding ponds, sending an unknown amount of raw sewage into the San Juan River, tribal utility officials said.

The disaster caps roughly two months of on-and-off heavy rain tied to tropical moisture pulled north from the Pacific amid an El Niño pattern, a stretch that followed months of drought and came weeks after deadly flash flooding struck the Grand Canyon area. The National Weather Service's Albuquerque office kept a flood watch in effect for much of the Four Corners region Sunday as additional storms moved through. Meteorologist Kris Sanders of the agency's Grand Junction office said the ground is now so waterlogged that even light rain could send small creeks over their banks.

No deaths had been confirmed anywhere in the region as of Sunday evening, officials said, though authorities cautioned that hazards remain. Fire officials in Farmington warned of possible gas and propane leaks, contaminated floodwater and downed lines in evacuated neighborhoods, and San Juan County Undersheriff Cory Tanner said house-to-house hazard checks could take several more days before residents are allowed back home.

New Mexico's congressional delegation has formally urged President Donald Trump to issue an emergency declaration, a step that would unlock federal disaster assistance for the hardest-hit counties. No decision had been announced as of early Monday. In the meantime, crews across the region were racing to reopen roads — including a stretch of U.S. 162 near Farmington that remained closed — reconnect power and reassess the risk as forecasters watched for the next round of rain.