Some Navajo Nation residents describe flood-ridden communities as 'uninhabitable'

NAVAJO NATION - President Joe Biden approved a disaster declaration for the Navajo Nation after winter storms and flooding continue to damage their homes.

However, those resources aren't being distributed to everyone who lives there.

"It's getting to the point where it's not safe," says Birdsprings resident, Brittanny Taylor.

She and Ashley Parker-James are members of the Birdsprings community located 13 miles northwest of Winslow, Arizona.

Life for them has been uninhabitable due to flooding.

"Navajo Nation says life is important but our family and our community seems to be overlooked because of a simple paper called the 'homesite lease,'" Taylor said.

Without the homesite lease, they don't have access to resources they need to survive. It's a document their families applied for back in 2006.

"A homesite lease is required to receive assistance, but when they settled in the area, that wasn't required at the time," Parker-James said.

The women are speaking out because the flooding has been going on for two years. A main contribution to the flooding is a bridge that isn't maintained.

"There has been full size refrigerators, trash, dead animals, livestock, that get stuck under that bridge, that doesn't get cleaned out properly, and it builds up and causes the majority of the overflow to our homestead," Parker-James said.

They've received hotel stays and food boxes in the past from tribal entities, but say there needs to be a permanent solution.

"We are in dire need of help from our tribe, and we do feel like we have to relocate at this time because the land is damaged, our homes are damaged. It's gotten so bad to where my aunt's full size van had gotten swept down in a water channel," Taylor said.

Navajo Nation responded to President Biden saying they are grateful to the administration for issuing the disaster declaration, and they're hopeful with the federal government's help they will be able to rebuild.

We reached out to Navajo Nation's president Buu Nygren about the families' homesite lease application but haven't heard back.

'We have residents that haven't eaten'

Chinle residents in Apache County on the Navajo Nation are days into their worst nightmare.

They say this is the worst flooding they've ever dealt with, and it's all because of the snowmelt. Residents in Chinle are under an evacuation order, but many of the residents simply don't want to leave their homes.

Some can't even get out now.

"Our residents are very emotional right now," says Dr. Rosanna Jumbo-Fitch. "We have people that are crying because they lost a lot of their property. We have residents that haven't eaten because we can't get to them."

Homes have been flooded, even shifted off their foundations. Septic tanks have been overflowing and sinkholes from the water weight have even started to appear.

This all is making the entire area extremely dangerous.

"We also have residents that have family here that can't even go to visit and do welfare checks on their own mothers and fathers and grandchildren because it's too dangerous to enter the area. So right now everybody is under a lot of emotional distress," Jumbo-Fitch said. "We are currently using boats, canoes, whatever resources we have to rope water and food to these residents."

She's assisting at the command center at Chinle Chapter. She says it's becoming more difficult to reach people, and they're running low on resources.

They'll take any help they can get.

"We need resources such as food, water, sandbags. We need life and safety equipment. We are very limited on our safety vests, we're limited on safety boots. Right now, we have a lot of our workers that are entering the waterways to help stop the breach," Jumbo-Fitch said.

These conditions are expected to continue for about two weeks.

The Navajo Police Department posted on Facebook April 24 that a rescue team was able to help an 82-year-old woman and her family out of their home due to flooding in Chinle.

"The elderly woman lived with her son and her grandchildren, ages ranging from twelve-years-old to twenty-one-years-old. Her son requested to stay at their home to secure the home," police said.

In another instance, Benjamin and Reyatta Smith have family living in Chinle. They've been helping and filming what's going on since the flooding started on days ago with no end in sight.

"Where the road used to be, road is about 6 feet deep, so you couldn't take a vehicle though, you couldn't walk through it anymore. My brother fell in, I fell in. There was a family that was trying to get across, and we were telling them not to but as they were coming across, they got swept away. So we all had to dive in and jump in and get them out of the water," Benjamin said.

Benjamin and Reyatta are asking anyone else who can come help fill sandbags and deliver food and water, to come.

"There is a huge runoff and then it's raining here now, so I'm sure they're going to get more water again overnight," Reyatta said.

Hundreds of residents in Chinle have been affected. Navajo Nation issued an evacuation order but many of the residents either didn’t want to leave their property and livestock, or simply couldn’t.

"This is the worst that I’ve seen ever since I’ve been living here," said Dr. Joe Shirley Jr.

The people of Chinle have dealt with flooding before, but never to this magnitude.

"We almost lost a mother and child because of the strong currents underneath," Shirley Jr. said.

Like much of the southwest, Chinle has dealt with a drought, so the rain and snowmelt is welcome, but it’s proven it can be devastating when it comes all at once.

Mud and sand now fills cars and homes.

"There was a smaller berm that had held up for about 15 or 20 years that would have small breaks in it. They would come fix it and the flooding wasn’t near as bad. This time we had a complete break and it took the entire community underwater down," said Brian Hounshell. He's the Apache County director of emergency management.

The Navajo Nation and Apache County emergency management created a joint command center directly overlooking the three-mile affected radius.

Navajo Nation president toured the damage as local leaders weigh temporary and permanent solutions.

"A lot of homes that are right in the face of where the berm broke in the water kept rushing into homes, and some of them, that’s the only thing that they have. It’s really sad to see," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said.

For nearly a week, volunteers have been sending food and water to residents by any means necessary – even using canoes and boats to rope items along.

"Many of them don’t use social media, there’s not much electronic media. So word of mouth is the way things spread," said Patrick Simmons with Red Cross.

The water has been redirected and much of it has receded, but with more snowmelt expected in the next two weeks, it’s likely this problem isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon.