Kaibeto sees flash flooding after Thursday’s heavy rainfall
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
Monsoon rainwater gushes through a usually dry Kaibeto Creek in lower Kaibeto, Ariz., after a storm crossed over northwestern Navajo Thursday afternoon.
K’AI’BII’TÓ, Ariz.
Some residents watched as torrents of rainwater sluice through lower Kaibeto on Thursday evening.
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
A grader clears a portion of State Route 98 west of Kaibeto, Ariz., after a storm crossed over northwestern Navajo Thursday afternoon.
Area residents Chester Yellowman, Calvin Coleman, and Clarence Begay stood alongside Kaibeto Creek to watch the raging monsoon wash gushing through the area where they once attended boarding school and played with their childhood friends.
“This is good,” Yellowman said. “And it’s good for Lake Powell.”
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
Monsoon rainwater swiftly runs through Kaibeto Creek in lower Kaibeto, Ariz., on Thursday evening.
The creek runs into Tooh Bikooh, the Colorado River, and into the reservoir “as it turns into a deep colorful canyon to the north against the high plateau Navajo sandstone,” according to the community’s history archived at the chapter house.
“We need another hardship check because of flash flooding across the Navajo Nation,” Coleman said as the rain fell Thursday evening.
The men said they saw water trickle between the rocks in the barren landscape, and within one hour, they saw a roaring creek running through the Willow Springs area.
Yellowman said when he was a child growing up in the Cedar Ridge and Marble Canyon areas, he and his family used the water in the Colorado River.
“We didn’t stand around like we are now and watched it,” he recalled. “But this is good, and it’s nature.”
Yellowman and Coleman added they remember working on a science project for school on the old bridge over the creek.
According to the National Weather Service in Phoenix, cooler temperatures and more thunderstorm activity are expected this weekend. The weather service in Flagstaff issued a flood warning for portions of Coconino and Navajo counties, effective until 9 p.m.
Navajo Times | Krista Allen
Clarence Begay, Calvin Coleman, and Chester Yellowman wave for the camera as they watch the monsoon rainwater run through Kaibeto Creek in lower Kaibeto, Ariz., on Thursday evening.
This includes Kaibeto, White Mesa Arch, Water Wash Slot Canyon, and Upper Kaibeto Slot Canyon.
Meanwhile, water flooded a portion of State Route 98 west of Kaibeto. Heavy equipment operators are working to remove water, debris, mud, and rocks off the roadway as of 7:32 p.m.
Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow