The Navajo community of Rock Point is uniquely susceptible to flooding.
It sits next to Chinle Wash and drainages flowing from the Lukachukai Mountains and Black Mesa, a mountainous uplift near Kayenta.
So when thunderstorms began battering the Four Corners region last week, including in Rock Point, Valinda Shirley knew it was a once-in-a-generation event. She thought back to the history of other floods in her home.
“This is the first time that my generation is having to go through it,” Shirley said. “Our parents went through their flood, and now when we kind of gather and talk to people, people in my mother's generation, they're like, ‘Yeah, I did this back in 1980.’”
Shirley, the vice president of the local chapter house, said her ancestors understood that the village of 345 people is low-lying. Its location makes it easier for tribal members to irrigate cornfields that have historically stretched out among peach-colored mesas.
Last weekend’s deluge, however, still made her feel powerless.
“It was the most helpless experience I've ever felt,” said Shirley, who’s also the former director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency. “The reason why I think I do as much as I do for my community is because I'm also trying to fight that helplessness that I feel. It's really hard to hear your relatives tell you or call you in the middle of the night and say, ‘The water is coming into my home. What do I do?’”
Officials used a SHERP all-terrain vehicle, which Shirley described as a “crazy animal monster of a vehicle,” to rescue a nearby family and an elder from rising water levels.
She said the community is resilient. Already, Shirley said she and others have begun to brainstorm ways to defend residents against further flooding predicted for this weekend: they could build a levee, repair irrigation ditches and stack sandbags.
This week, Shirley asked the American Red Cross to help assess damaged homes, but she wants to know why federal agencies aren’t there.
“I do feel like the federal government should be here a little bit more,” she said. “I was kind of hoping somebody would be talking to FEMA about all of this.”
Under the Stafford Act, state governors and tribal chief executives can ask the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency for a presidential disaster declaration. Typically, FEMA will conduct damage assessments of an area before an impacted government submits its request.
The office of Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren did not immediately respond when asked whether the tribe plans to ask FEMA for a declaration.
“Tribal governments, as sovereign nations, are able to seek federal help directly,” said Liliana Soto, press secretary for Gov. Katie Hobbs. “The administration is working closely with the Navajo Nation on disaster response and recovery efforts, including a potential federal major disaster declaration if appropriate.”
Soto said the state moved quickly to support tribal response efforts, including the state Department of Public Safety, which provided air rescues for flood victims. More recently, she said that the state Department of Transportation is supporting Navajo officials with inspections to damaged roads and infrastructure.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said on Monday that President Donald Trump approved a federal disaster declaration for communities in the northern part of the state, which includes part of the Navajo Nation.
Meanwhile, back in Rock Point, Shirley said officials at an incident command team told her an upcoming storm expected to hit the area this Thursday or Friday could be just as severe as the one from this weekend. Once the threat of flooding subsides, Shirley said local leaders need to plan on building the area back even stronger.
“The homes that are right now in the path of this flood, those are homes that we hope to pass on to our children, along with the corn plots. Those are plots that we plan to allow our children to inherit,” she said.
Among the ideas she has for rebuilding: Get someone from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to come to Rock Point and look at watersheds in the area. That, she said, could give the community a better idea of what happened, and how it could improve.
