Chinle flooding improves, but water continues to run
Navajo Times | David Smith
Volunteers from Team Rubicon help continue building a berm blocking the wash where floodwater is coming through. This is one of three berms helping regulate the flooding that has swept through the Chinle community for nearly five days.
CHINLE
It’s been nearly a week since an old berm resting near the mouth of Canyon de Chelly burst, allowing floodwaters to quickly envelop sections of the Chinle community in what some residents call the worst flooding seen in years.
Since then, heavy equipment from different divisions, counties, and companies had arrived and is constructing two earth-made berms with nearby boulders being broken and added. A third berm is also being made with sandbags.
Much of the initial flooded area is drying into mud though there are still some breaches areas along the wash, and residents are still calling for aid.
Michael Anderson, the executive director for the Division of Public Safety, one of the officials in charge, has been on site since the emergency was first declared last Friday. He said progress had been made, and the available resources would continue working to help Chinle with the crisis.
“The efforts that have been put in by all of the resources have been tremendous,” Anderson said. “It really helped mitigate the situation.”
Read the full story in the April 27 edition of the Navajo Times.
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