San Tan Valley flooding after Sunday's stormsSAN TAN VALLEY, AZ (CBS5) -
Typhoon Vicente was the strongest storm to hit Hong Kong in more than ten years.
And one San Tan Valley resident literally flew from that storm into Sunday's storm.
As a commercial airline pilot flying internationally, Franc Mendes has experienced all kinds of nasty weather. This time, the bad weather seemed to have followed him, as he flew out of Hong Kong just as the major typhoon had passed. He didn't expect to come back to waterfront property in the desert, but Sunday's strong thunderstorms had turned his street into a muddy creek.
"I left devastation, experienced devastation, and got home to devastation, so here we are today cleaning up," Mendes said.
Mendes usually sleeps after getting home from a long international flight. But he told us this cleanup effort has been a good cure for his jet lag. Thankfully, a good neighbor brought in some heavy equipment to help.
"He can fly the airplane and I can drive the bobcat. They're two different things, it's just that I can do it in my sleep," said neighbor Nic Whitaker.
"We're a close little community, there are only a few of us here. We try and help one another out. So it was natural for Nic to be driving by and help me out. Just like I'm going to help my neighbor across the road later on."
Mendes took it all in stride and other than spending the day cleaning up dirt and landscaping rock, no damage was done to his home.
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