The San Juan River reached 16.81 feet at Pagosa Springs, Colorado, on Sunday, one foot short of the 1911 flood that nearly wiped out the town, and residents it evacuated or cut off can swap their mail ballots at any vote center in the state today. The governors of Colorado and New Mexico have also asked President Trump for a major disaster declaration. The last time Colorado asked, for last October’s flood on that same river, the administration said no, said no again on appeal in April, and FEMA did not say why.
Florida’s Atlantic coast took about 22 inches of rain in 24 hours in Palm Bay, and Robert Haley, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Melbourne, told NBC News the total exceeded everyone’s expectations. Gov. Ron DeSantis declared an emergency in seven counties along the coast. We added up the polling-place changes the county supervisors published Monday: Brevard moved eight precincts out of five sites, St. Lucie eleven out of seven, Indian River two out of two, Palm Beach two out of two and Martin one out of one. That is 17 sites and 24 precincts across five counties. Brevard’s supervisor of elections, Tim Bobanic, cited “unprecedented circumstances,” and officials there warned that more changes are possible, so both totals are a floor.
In Arizona, Gov. Katie Hobbs declared a statewide emergency on Monday that releases $200,000 and covers parts of seven counties and five tribal nations, and Maricopa County declared its own for unincorporated areas. In Flagstaff, police say a 73-year-old man from New York fell into floodwater rushing into a drainage tunnel and was found dead Monday about 15 blocks away. They suspect a second man found dead in a drainage area was also a flood death. Durango’s police chief, Brice Current, said “there’s still a lot of people stranded.”
Florida Moved the Polling Places, Colorado and Utah Moved the Ballot
Florida: the place moves. County supervisors reassigned precincts to community centers, a church, an event center, a hotel and the Palm Bay council chambers. Palm Beach County is texting or emailing affected voters and posting signs at the old sites. Polls stay open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. under the usual rules.
Colorado and Utah: the ballot moves. Colorado’s secretary of state arranged for evacuated or stranded Pagosa Springs residents to replace mail ballots at any vote center. In-person voters outside their home county get statewide races only, and mail ballots can go to any drop box or vote center by 7 p.m. NBC News also reports online voting in La Plata and Archuleta counties, which AP’s account does not mention. In Utah, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson declared an emergency so San Juan County voters cut off by floodwater can request and return ballots electronically.
Three offices solved three versions of the same problem in a weekend: county supervisors in Florida, the secretary of state in Colorado and the lieutenant governor in Utah. No one can yet say how many votes the floods will cost, and a voter’s options depend on which official happened to act. We think emergency-voting rules belong in statute before the next flood, not in a declaration written the weekend of, because a state that can invent electronic ballots for a county cut off by water can write the rule in advance.
The harder question comes after the polls close. Gov. Jared Polis asked for a major disaster declaration for the October 2025 flood in Archuleta, La Plata and Mineral counties, and the administration denied it, then denied the appeal in April with little explanation. A FEMA spokesperson said the agency followed the Stafford Act and did not specify why, and White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president reviews each request under that law and that the decision was not political. Pagosa Springs had asked for $5.7 million for cleanup, and FEMA’s denial of that request is dated December 21. Archuleta County, where the town sits, voted about 56% for Trump in 2024, so the denial does not read as punishment of a blue county. It reads as an unexplained one.
We think the answer this time should come within days, in writing, with a reason attached if it is no. A declaration decides whether a town of fewer than 2,000 people can pay for a new $3.5 million sewer lift station, a bill left over from last October, and Pagosa Springs has already planned for silence: its development director, James Dickhoff, told the town council in January the town was “not counting on FEMA money” to come through. The San Juan River is still rising in New Mexico, where officials say it could crest Tuesday through Wednesday, so the damage list that goes with the new request is not finished.