Police evacuate 50 in Chinle as wash swells

About 50 people were evacuated from low-lying areas along the Chinle Wash Tuesday evening after a small earthen dam broke on Whiskey Creek, sending a torrent into the already rain-swollen wash through Canyon de Chelly.

About 5:20 p.m., a 300-foot-high funnel cloud touched down on a mesa west of Many Farms, causing no damage but disrupting traffic on U.S. 191 as motorists pulled over to take pictures of the phenomenon. Video of the twister can be found on YouTube.

More damaging were shifting sands and mudflows that broke several water mains throughout the Navajo Nation, including pipes at Low Mountain, Church Rock and the Kayenta area.

Denise Becenti of the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority reported Low Mountain Chapter had been without water for two days, and the NTUA was trucking water out to residents.

Meanwhile, authorities were trying to stanch the equally uncontrollable flow of rumors, including a widely circulated text message that Tsaile Dam had broken.

"We've been told some of these have been picked up by local media, causing people to panic," said Sharon Yazzie, public information officer for the joint emergency response event dubbed "Operation Downpour."

Yazzie said reports from the Navajo Safety of Dams Program indicated both Tsaile and Wheatfields dams were two feet below their spillways Tuesday. Both were being closely monitored.

A radio report that the Holiday Inn had been advised to evacuate its customers was also untrue, said a receptionist at the motel, which is located next to Chinle Wash.

By Wednesday morning, both the Chinle and Nazlini washes appeared to be flowing well below the high-water marks of the previous night, but both were still swollen far beyond the trickles they usually are this time of year. Authorities were advising evacuees to stay away from their homes for a few more days until they could be sure the weather had stabilized.

Only about a dozen people, mostly non-Navajo tourists who had been evacuated from Cottonwood Campground at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, used the emergency shelter set up by the Red Cross at the Chinle Community Center.

"It seems like most people had relatives in the area they could stay with," said a security guard at the shelter.

French tourists Yves and Mary LeProvost, snuggled in sleeping bags on a mattress provided by the Red Cross at the shelter, said they had driven to Canyon de Chelly from the Grand Canyon Tuesday afternoon, but were delayed while a crew cleared mud from a low-lying section of U.S. 160.

"By the time we got here, the campground was closed," Mary LeProvost said.

The pair said they were grateful for the accommodations and thankful to be warm and dry.

Eloise Mitchell, who lives along Chinle Wash north of Church's Chicken, said she had starting getting scared when all her neighbors cleared out, although the torrent was still a good way from her house.

"We didn't have a ride," she said.

After calling various relatives, her sister came and picked up her family in a van.

Yazzie said anyone who is stranded in a flood-prone area or who has a disabled family member should call the Navajo Nation Police for assistance.

"Those are the people we're really worried about, the ones who can't walk out if they have to," she explained.

Yazzie said evacuees should bring bedding, a change of clothes, toiletries and any medications they may need, and plan to stay away for three days.

The National Weather Service is predicting a 40 percent chance of rain in the Chinle area today. Another heavy rain in the Chuska Mountains could swell the washes again, Yazzie warned.

"What we're really worried about is if the Chinle Wash and Nazlini Wash both flood and run together," she said. "That could be very dangerous."

The last major flood in Chinle was in 1967, when the rain-swollen Nazlini Wash swept away a bridge and killed eight people.

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