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A woman who unknowingly drove into a flooded roadway had to be rescued this morning after her car was swept into the Rillito River.

The woman was not injured, according to Capt. Norm Carlton, a Tucson Fire Department spokesman.

The incident occurred just before 3 a.m. when the woman was driving to work in the area of Camino De La Tierra and the Rillito River, Carlton said.

There were no barricades up and the woman claimed to have not seen the water before she drove in, he said.

As she made her way in, her car began to float down stream about a half mile down the river, Carlton said. It came to a stop on a sandbar.

She called 911 from her car and waited for rescuers to arrive.

Approximately 25 firefighters were involved in the effort with some stationed upstream, some down stream and about four conducting the actual rescue, Carlton said.

The firefighters formed a line and walked sideways to the woman's car. She was given a personal floatation device and a helmet before she was led out of the knee deep, swift moving water, Carlton said.

"This is the perfect example of how our washes flow," Carlton said. "There was no rain here overnight but it was flowing bank to bank from the rain that came down in the mountains yesterday.

"Just because it's not raining does not mean that washes aren't going to flow."

Showers and thunderstorms stretching from western Graham County will move southwest into Pima County through 9 a.m. today, according to the National Weather Service.

The storms will produce moderate rainfall for morning commuters, especially on the East Side.