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More than 72 hours ago, representatives of Hard Rock, Forest Lake, Pinyon, Black Mesa and Whippoolwill said waiting 48 hours to receive emergency management was too long.
On Monday night, newly-elected Alderman Jermaine Simonson looked flustered as he left the Navajo Nation Council Chamber in Window Rock.
“We have to get help out there,” she said. Now what is it?It’s been almost a week.So almost a week.And they want us to wait another 48 hours, which is two more days.”
Her colleague, Andy Nez, who represents the Crystal, Fort Defiance, Red Lake, and Sawmill chapters, said Apache County District 2 and its Emergency Management Team will be conducting emergency services in the Sawmill and White Clay areas beginning January 19. I am receiving updates on the ongoing operation.
Jeddito, Cornfields, Ganado, Kinłichíí, and another colleague, Vince James, representing Steamboat, have also asked for help for his chapter.
Continuous storm blanket lesbian
Navajo Times | Donovan Quintero
Wilson Ruffing, 78, is carrying the plastic bucket he sat in while trying to save his pickup truck from the snow on Friday.
A series of storm systems that hit California within the past two weeks swept into the Navajo Nation and brought heavy snowfall to central and northeastern Arizona. The National Weather Service has begun issuing winter weather advisories and warnings in anticipation of upcoming storms.
On January 13th, the Bureau of Meteorology predicted a snowstorm for areas above 4,500 feet elevation from January 14th to January 18th.
Sawmill Branch employee and lifelong resident of the area, Stanley Yazzy, said last Friday that those who live in the sawmill area typically face difficult weather systems and unpaved roads that help rural Dineh. He said he was prepared for the difficulties that would arise when the roads connected to the rest of the road were closed to traffic. He said the recent blizzard hit people usually caught off guard.
Yazie works with Apache County Emergency Management and Preparedness and since last Thursday has helped locate trapped residents along Apache County Highway 9703, which stretches more than 20 miles across the mountainous Defiance Plateau. was
As the crew was heading back to Sawmill, about an hour away from their location, Yazzie said of an elderly man trapped in a blizzard that covered a quarter-mile of road with about four feet of snow. received a call from Yazzie told paramedics that an elderly man was asking for water and hay for his sheep.
Eric Garcia, Cody Waite, and Yazzie, responsible for emergency management and preparedness for Apache County, rushed to help resident Wilson Ruffing.
The Navajo Department of Transportation graders had already cleared their way to their homes. When Yazzy, Garcia, and Waits arrived, they saw Luffing struggling to dig a pickup truck out of the snow near the sheep pen.
At 78, 79 and a month later, I was sitting in a plastic bucket and using a snow shovel. He told them that when he tried to drive the truck to the ranch to give the sheep the last bale of hay he had, the car got stuck.
As the graders cleared the way to the house, Luffing quickly grabbed a shovel and freed the truck so he could feed the herd.
Yazie spoke in Navajo and asked Ruffing if he needed their help. He grabbed a cane and allowed the emergency management team to free his pickup his truck.
When his truck was released, Laughter got in and drove to the corral. Garcia and Waits again offered to help him feed the sheep.
“Nléídi shá ndéedoozíłdo nt’ee, chizh shijáhjí,” he asked Yazzie.
Yazzie explains that due to the lack of daylight hours, she has to return to Sawmill, but will be back the next day.
“Ishjah. Dooládo ahxéhee da,” he said with a laugh to the departing paramedics.
The day before, an emergency management team led by former Apache County Sheriff Brian Hounschel helped another couple as they plowed their way to the homestead.
Requires dry wood, food, and water
Simonson said her branch needed dry wood, food and water on Monday.
“There are some places where there is no water,” she said, adding that some of her members use solar to power their homes. “Because of the snow and possibly clouds, their batteries have run out. Yeah, food, water, and just getting out of the driveway.”
Medical emergencies were another concern Simonson wanted the Nygren-Montoya administration and council to address.
“Some people have to go to get medical services, dialysis treatments, etc. And a lot of us have home care,” she said. And that’s why home care workers come to see them, and they come to see them. If you can’t, no one offers that service.”
At the Navajo Transportation Authority on Friday, Navajo tribal officials updated Vice President Montoya, who visited the emergency operation north of the sawmill.
“Tachíí, Blue Gap, burnt corn, the roads are impassable,[they]need more reinforcement, and have about 15 inches of snow,” Edmund Tso, director of emergency operations command and planning, told Montoya. Told. “They have graders running but are calling for reinforcements. And Hard Rock, they have declared a state of emergency. Big Mountain, they still need water, food, hay and their roads still need grading.”
Heavy equipment that is difficult to remove snow
Tso told the vice president that heavy equipment clearing the dirt roads of Black Mesa was having problems and was stuck.
They struggle with it,” Tso said. “When the snow starts to melt, it will happen again.”
A warmer trend is forecast for this weekend, with a small chance of a mix of rain and snow on Monday, according to the National Weather Service. As temperatures begin to rise, the melting snow could bring floods similar to last year’s monsoon rains that caused flooding. When the monsoon rains brought much-needed moisture to the Navajo, torrential rains flowed down the Chuska Mountains, through the Defiance Plateau, and into Lake Tsaire and Lake Wheatfields. The water flows through Nasrini’s Canyon de Chelly and finally into Many Farms.
Emergency authorities are prepared for flooding that can be caused by melting snow.
On Wednesday, Council Representative Brenda Jesus participated in a debate on whether to provide all 110 chapters with $20,000 in emergency funding to prepare them to deal with emergencies.
“Let’s go ahead and approve the amendment and from there get the money to voters in this emergency that we have,” she told the council.
Winds are expected to return as the next few months warm, with winds of 60 to 70 mph. The National Weather Service estimates that daytime highs could reach 43 degrees and lows as low as 9 degrees.
emergency
Sonratsa Jim, from the community development department, said the council was inundated with calls for help on Wednesday.
“We are in a state of emergency and this morning I was at the Emergency Operations Center to help all the emergency teams there with the hundreds of branch emergency requests that are coming in right now as we speak. “We were in a state of emergency,” Jim told the council, explaining that the tribe did not have an emergency plan.
She told Jesus that the department is dealing with two emergency declarations, Covid and weather.
“We are under two states of emergency. We are still under the Covid state of emergency. It is not over and we are not standing still.
“So we have chapters that respond to community spread, also known as outbreaks. So we work with the CHR and medical professionals to respond to specific communities experiencing outbreaks,” said Jim. “Add to that the winter storm emergency that just hit us, and I know that some branches are having trouble coordinating their response with the Emergency Management Agency. I have.”
Adding to the already complicated situation, Jim informed the board that many vacancies and newly hired staff were slowing efforts.
Yazzie, when he’s not saving lives, is a chapter maintenance technician at Sawmill and said he knows all the people who live on the plateau. He anticipates when the snow will turn to mud, which he anticipates will be “really bad”, but he and his neighbors are used to it.
“They park their cars on a sloping road,” he said.
He said he was used to it. They built a homemade sled and tethered it to two horses to trek through the snow. As for the people they helped, he thought they were caught off guard.
“We stock up on everything and get ready for winter,” he casually said.
