Every year, wildfires burn across the Arizona landscape. During 2016, 2,285 wildfires burned 308,245 acres. The largest fire in Arizona history is the Wallow Fire, which consumed 538,049 acres in 2011 (15,407 acres in New Mexico).

It was a late December night when Jesse Robinson’s cell phone rang. Robinson is the Search and Rescue (SAR) and Warning Coordinator for the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA). He answered the call from the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center (AFRCC) about a missing aircraft from Scottsdale airport.

Arizona City sits in the Santa Cruz River Basin in south-central Arizona. It is an area that floods when monsoon or winter rains pour from the sky. With more than 24 significant floods in the past 100 years, and various levels of flooding every year, Arizona City and its residents must deal with water on their streets, and sometimes in their homes.