Rising water
Grants, other areas flood

Jim Maniaci
Staff Writer

GRANTS — Once again flooding severed the residential areas of Grants from the main business district last night, but no injuries were reported.

And there is more to come, warned Grants Police Department spokesman Officer Moses Marquez. At 3 a.m. today he said the waters were rising again on San Jose Drive, the through street south of the railroad tracks where the Rio San Jose turns north to skirt around the downtown area.

Flooding also occcured in the Tse Bonito area Thursday where a bridge was washed out, and offices and several buildings were flooded.

Thursday night three families were evacuated from apartments on the lower end of Sage Avenue as the flood waters from the Mount Taylor watershed overflowed the banks of the drainages, especially the river which snakes its way through the Cibola County seat. All the Rio San Jose's tributary creeks and irrigation ditches also rose above their banks.

Marquez said the three families were offered shelter at the Mount Taylor Elementary School. Although the school is in the flood area, it sits on higher ground. Instead the families chose to take sanctuary with relatives, he said.

The first call came into the police station at 6:08 p.m., beginning a flood of calls about impassable streets. The station sits on high ground on Roosevelt Avenue west of the cemetery.

So many calls came into the station, he said, that the department ran short of officers. All available emergency personnel, including several New Mexico State Police officers, plus the Fire-Rescue Department and the private ambulance service, along with the Cibola County Sheriff's Office deputies, were called to duty.

Officers began stringing up yellow crime scene tape in an attempt to keep drivers from entering the fast-flowing low-lying areas, but to no avail. This prompted citizens to man the barricades as motorists insisted upon entering the flooded intersections. Marquez said several stalled, but no dramatic rescues had to be attempted.

"Even the mayor (Ron Ortiz) manned the barricades," Marquez added.

At one time briefly several hours after the first call, every major arterial north-south street in a 4-mile-wide stretch across the city was blocked off.

After about a quarter-hour, around 8 p.m., the city streets department reopened the sole north-south link, Sakerulas Boulevard, even though it resembled a canal in the Italian seaside city of Venice. Headlights shone through the darkened streets, resembling a 2-lane Route 66 of the past.

Even First and Second streets, the main north-south, one-way couplet from the downtown area, was closed for a short time, Marquez said.

But the high waters soon flowed downstream to the Washington and Jefferson streets crossings. Water was 3-4 feet deep over the Washington bridge at one time.

Early this morning, he said, an inspector cleared the Washington bridge for traffic, even though it sustained minor damage, including some small cracks.

By about 9 p.m., the officer said the worst of the flooding was over and the water levels began to drop.

Quick work, he added, by the city and state streets and highway departments' crews cleared the mud and debris from most of the intersections which are open this morning.

However, one major street, George Hanosh Boulevard, remained closed at the intersection with Elm Street.

"For the other streets to drain, the water has to stay there a while," the officer explained.

Monday night the City Council appointed a five-member committee to seek solutions to the ever-present flooding problem.

The heavy rain also washed out N.M. 605 north of Milan and standing water forced the closure of N.M. 117 to the east, according to Peter Olson, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for north-central Cibola County late Thursday. Warnings were also issued for Taos, Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties, where rainfall rates ranged between 2 to 3 inches in an hour.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 285-6184 or (505) 870-7775.