Uninsured and flooded out, a Colorado man worries if life will be normal again

EDITH, Colo. (AP) — Matthew Martinez has lived nearly all of his 60 years in a canyon on the Navajo River and had never seen severe floods.Then, twice over the last two weeks, the river surged through his home and outbuildings in far southwestern Colorado, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the resort town of Pagosa Springs. Now a horse is missing, his barn is damaged and the river swallowed a corral. The house is strewn with mud. His tools washed downstream.“We’re in trouble, all of us are. Not just me, everybody,” Martinez said through tears when he returned Wednesday. He said several families that go back 100 years in the same canyon had similar damage. “Nobody expected this.”The Navajo, San Juan and Animas rivers are among those that surged beyond their banks when round after round of storms dumped heavy rain across the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.Scientists say a supercharged El Niño event — when warm water in the Pacific disrupts weather pat