Eblast for August 31, 2026

Greetings, Rio Crossing Owners and Residents,

It’s been a little over three weeks since the big storm that caused damage to a number of homes in our community. Winds swept in a northerly direction between 60 and 80 mph and caused some damage throughout the community, some of it severe.

I wanted to give you an update on several related items, and would appreciate your time in reading this newsletter.

Please read below, then click this link to take a brief survey.

Ray Harwood, Board Member, Association VP

I want to quickly note that many homes in our community had some amount of roof damage. If you have not yet done so, please take a close look at your roof tiles to ensure that they are all appropriately in place and protecting your roof and the interior of your home. Look especially along rooflines where tiles may be out of place, from an inch or two or even missing.

Please also look at your neighbor’s homes, and if you see damage there, reach out to your neighbor to ensure that they are aware. Don’t know your neighbor? Now is a good time to connect!

The mailbox units at Devonshire and 123rd were severely damaged by the stormwater drainage pipes that blew in from the neighboring construction site south of Rio Crossing. It’s amazing what a 60-80mph wind can do!

I spoke with the USPS Avondale postal office a day after the storm, and they sent someone out to review the damage. Of course, they were quite surprised at what they saw and referred the situation to the main Phoenix postal office.

 Last week I called USPS in Avondale to get an update, and they were pretty clear that (a) the Phoenix office doesn’t keep them in the loop and (b) sometimes the replacement process can take months. This past weekend I called the Customer Service hot line for USPS and filed a complaint/inquiry to get a status update, since my efforts to get this information directly from the Avondale and Phoenix offices were unsuccessful.

 At last week’s board meeting, the board asked our community manager to get estimates for the Association to do the replacement. Once we have cost information and an update from the USPS on their efforts, the board will make a decision whether or not to proceed with this replacement by the association.

I’ve had a couple of discussions with affected residents and will do my best to keep everyone in the loop as we learn more, make decisions, and potentially undertake this project directly.

If you are affected by the damage to these units, we especially need your input on the survey!

Several walls were damaged throughout the community which are “party walls” — walls located on the boundary between two property owners. Damages to party walls is shared between the involved property owners. In the case of three of these walls, they are shared between a lot owner and the association.

Our community manager has been collecting several proposals from licensed contractors to repair these walls, and here is a picture of the most severely damaged wall provided by one of the contractors:

At last week’s board meeting, the board approved a plan to hire a contractor to do the repairs, pay the contractor for the repairs, and provide documentation to the affected property owners regarding their half of the expense, as well as file with the association’s insurance carrier for this and other damage borne by the association, which included significant tree damage, and may include costs of repairing the mailbox units mentioned above, if the USPS can’t replace them in a timely manner.

As happens with every storm, there was damage to quite a few trees on common areas. A few were totally uprooted, and a number of them had severe limb damage. Following the major storm August 9th, we’ve had a few other times with significant wind which typically blows down a few more limbs weakened by the bigger, previous storm. And of course many trees on home lots were also damaged or uprooted.

Please take our brief survey. It has 3 small sections that are important to me and the board:

Please click this link to take a brief survey.