Emergency abates, but work continues

(Special to the Times - Donovan Quintero)

"King Kong," a 2006 Chevrolet dually pickup belonging to Wide Ruins Chapter, is splattered with mud after delivering food, water and hay to stranded families Wednesday.

advertisement

Since the Navajo Nation declared a state of emergency, the focus of Operation Snowfall 2010 has shifted from the snowbound mountain communities to the low lying areas of the Navajo Nation, said Selena Manychildren, spokesperson for the tribe's Emergency Operations Center in Window Rock.

"We're getting calls from residents because they're saying that their chapters didn't help them," she said, adding that melting snow is making roads muddy.

Inside the center, she pointed to a map with color-coded areas. Areas where the operation was confident that all high-risk residents have been helped were blue. Other communities were colored tan, meaning the center was still receiving calls from residents needing help with food, water or other materials.

While the center has the big picture in view, some chapters are still working day by day to supply residents.

Black Mesa, one of the harder hit communities, was color-coded blue.

"Everybody can get out," said Albert Lee, community service coordinator for Kíts'íílí Chapter (formerly Black Mesa), adding that the roads to many of the resident's homes are now thick mud.

He said some snowdrifts were as high as 5 feet.

"We have all out roads graded. We have four main roads," he said in a phone interview. "The rest (of the roads) are pretty muddy and the snow is melting."

With another storm approaching, he said Black Mesa residents are using the time to restock food and supplies.

"Everybody knows to get your stuff done while (muddy roads) are frozen," he said.

However, in looking back to when the state of emergency was first declared, Lee said some forms of communication with the command post in Window Rock were difficult.

During the initial snowfall, the chapter's Internet stopped working, and to make matters worse, the command post requested that Lee fax report forms, cost summaries and other documents in order to receive aid.

"We only have cell phones. We don't have a fax," Lee said, adding that with no landline to support a fax machine, he has to drive 21 miles to reach the nearest fax machine at the Piñon Chapter House.

---

"We got a lot of missed calls," Lee said about the chapter's dependence on cell-phone technology during the emergency.

Most Black Mesa residents are now able to move about but people are growing concerned about their livestock, even though the Navajo Nation and chapter have provided hay at little or no cost, he said.

"Everybody's concerned about their animals. They can't get out. The sheep won't go through the snow," he said adding that many people have reported that their livestock are starving.

On the map at the command center, Wide Ruins is color-coded tan, meaning that distress calls are still coming in.

Manychildren said she believes that some of the calls now coming in are from people who weren't home when the Emergency Operations Center initiated a search-and-rescue operation in the area earlier this week.

Dorothy Baldwin, Wide Ruins community service coordinator, said snow in the area was estimated to be as high as 25 inches, and now it is melting and saturating the dirt roads.

Though the focus is still grading roads, Wide Ruins has also begun to deliver wood and food to residents who need it most, said Marsha Joe, office specialist at Wide Ruins Chapter.

Since firewood is in short supply and commanding above-normal prices, the chapter has decided to purchase wood from any vendor willing to deliver it, she said.

"This is for our grandparents," she said, adding that as of Wednesday morning, the chapter had bought five loads of wood from independent vendors.

In addition to wood, the chapter over the past couple of weeks has received a number of goods from various agencies. The chapter house storage rooms are lined with bags of potatoes, and in another room, there are blankets and bottled water. All of which is going to community members who haven't yet come in to claim their allotted food baskets, Joe said.

Even though the chapter is providing donated relief items to their residents, Baldwin said residents need to heed warnings of new storms.

"You guys all know we have four seasons," she said, stressing preparedness. "So when the weather comes, you'll be stocked up so you don't have to go anywhere."

King Kong to the rescue

Though Wide Ruins might not have any equipment to grade roads or remove snow, it has one vehicle that can be relied upon to transport goods to residents in good times and bad. Its name is King Kong.

"Are you going to let King Kong out of the cage?" Joe says whenever they are about to use the chapter's 2006 heavy-duty dual wheeled truck.

On Wednesday morning, King Kong was sent on a mission to deliver a load of firewood to Martha Burns, 73, a Wide Ruins resident. The pickup bed holds about half a cord, enough to last her for several weeks if she's careful.

King Kong was covered with clumps of mud from the front grill to the sides of the rear wheels.

"You're going to mess up our windows," Baldwin said jokingly when a passenger rolled down the mud-speckled window.

Baldwin said the vehicle has become an important asset since the chapter has to pick up the supplies provided by the tribe. The truck rumbled south on U.S. 191 before Baldwin turned west onto Blue Metal Road.

Though the road was in drivable condition, Baldwin maneuvered the truck in and around 30-foot-long mud puddles holding a foot of water.

"This year was worse," she said, comparing recent snowfall to years past.

After nearly 20 minutes of driving through mud, ruts and snow, Baldwin reached Burns' doublewide mobile home.

As a chapter helper unloaded the wood, Burns said her son was snowed in and couldn't go to work when the storm first came.

"I lost my job because I couldn't get out," said Keegan Burns, 35, of Wide Ruins.

He said he worked at a convenience store in Sanders, Ariz., but when he missed three days of work because of the storm, he was fired.

That made the chapter's help even more welcome.

"Thank you," Martha Burns said to Baldwin. "Now we'll be warm for awhile."

Back to top ^