Residents of Chinle continue to suffer the effects of devastating flooding that impacted the area in April.
Members of the Navajo Nation Council recently met with community members who requested building supplies and help repairing septic tanks and removing damaged household items and sand that accumulated after large-scale spring snowmelt.
It heavily damaged property, homes and livestock and triggered numerous evacuations.
Residents said they can’t recover without assistance, and Navajo emergency crews were only site in the days immediately following the flooding.
Some community members and elders still can’t access their homes because of built-up silt and have odorous, brown contaminated water running from their faucets.
Chinle Chapter President Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch said the Navajo Department of Emergency Management missed a June deadline to request an emergency declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which could have provided additional recovery funds.