Effort helps Navajo folks stuck in mud
FEMA scouts on their way to Hopi, Navajo to assess damage

By Jim Maniaci
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Some 120 Navajo families received storm relief within a 6-hour period early Monday morning thanks to a highly-organized and cooperative effort. Hogans and houses in seven chapters two more than planned Sunday morning were covered.

It also was announced Monday that two initial assessment scout teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are on their way to the Navajo and Hopi reservations. This would lay the foundation for a possible eventual U.S. emergency declaration by President George W. Bush, which means the tribes might receive additional money and be reimbursed for some of their costs.

The teams, invited by the Arizona Emergency Management Department after contacts by the Navajo Nation Emergency Management Commission, were due to arrive today in Flagstaff, according to Commission Chair Herman Shorty.

He told those at Monday afternoon's briefing in the emergency operations center in Window Rock that FEMA wanted to spend one day in each reservation. But Navajo and Arizona officials believe it will take two days to cover the larger reservation. The winter storms hit the southwestern-most chapters of the Navajo Nation, then clobbered more than a dozen chapters in a swath across the mid-section of the reservation and into New Mexico, especially one chapter south of Gallup.

In all, the storm damage stretches almost 150 miles across Navajo country.

The situation is particularly serious for Navajos because many families live in remote forested and pastoral lands.

Hopi officials have not made any public declarations of need; however, the reservation covers parts of Navajo and Coconino counties, which, along with Apache County, declared states of emergency and had Ariz. Gov. Janet Napolitano add them to her original list from some December storms farther south.

Part of huge effort
After issuing their declaration of emergency on Jan. 8, Navajo officials launched a gigantic intra-tribal and inter-agency effort to determine who needed help and what assistance they needed. Community Health Representatives (CHR's) workers aware of each families' needs proved invaluable, especially in the remote areas bogged down with the gooey mess that has made roads impassable by day and traversable for only a few hours early in the pre-dawn morning when the ground freezes enough to support the weight of vehicles.

The early Monday morning relief effort was dubbed the "Black Mesa Detail" of "Operation Hashtklish (Mud)."

Initially, Lt. Ronni Wauneka and Sgt. Ronald Gene of the Navajo Nation Public Safety Division's Law Enforcement Department thought relief workers would be able to reach stranded residents in the Pinon and Hard Rock Chapters. As the operations and logistics directors, they believed relief convoys would have to return the next morning to do the Forest Lake, Black Mesa and Tachee-Blue Gap chapters. All five chapters are on top of the mesa.

As it turned out, the Whippoorwill and Low Mountain chapters also rallied their forces and were ready to load up the relief vehicles with wood, coal, water, food, hay and dog food.

Combined, the seven chapters have a population of 9,677 people, according the 2004 edition of the Community Development Division's reference book "Chapter Images."

Although some of those unable to reach civilization were families of one or two elderly people, many were larger Navajo families with children.

The huge drive reached most of those who had been stranded for days, some for more than a week, by gooey, slimy mud which caused high-clearance vehicles to sink ruts up to a foot, deeper than most pickup truck axles can clear.

Tribal officials said more exact figures would be compiled today as the results are tabulated.

No sleep
Wauneka did not sleep for 36 hours, rising at 5:30 a.m. Sunday and leaving the emergency operations center in Window Rock after 5 p.m. Monday, directing 70 commissioned officers, including Din patrol officers, Hopi Rangers, plus rangers and wardens from the Navajo Nation Natural Resources Division.

At the Monday afternoon briefing, the lieutenant commented to her colleagues, "Last night, it was great," including the cooperation of volunteers to package and load the relief supplies. This included 115 food boxes, according to Char James, who is handling the operation's volumes of paperwork and who was in the field, too.

Pion officials received high praise for their cooperation and preparation, especially what the chapter's Approved Local Emergency Response Team (ALERT) accomplished. The chapter served a mutton stew dinner, then afterwards, cooked breakfast for those who journeyed into the below freezing nighttime temperatures.

Sgt. Gene reported that everyone finished and was back at the marshaling yard at the Pinon Chapter House around 9 a.m., with the last crews having departed around 3 a.m.

After the relief workers get some rest, they will be looking at secondary areas of need such as the Shonto, Inscription House and Navajo Mountain chapters, as well as getting back to the Black Mesa Chapter and anyone else who has not been reached.

One area a relief convoy did reach was Thorn Valley, about five miles north of the Black Mesa Chapter House. In the entire operation, officials said there were no injuries, nor any stuck vehicles, but just in case, tow trucks went with the convoys and ambulances were standing by.

Natural Resources Division Director Arvin Trujillo pointed out that with the three major emergencies in the last four years, staring with floods, then drought, and now the snow-rain-mud storms, the tribe has gotten better in responding quickly and with more precision.

David Nez, a former Public Safety Division director who served as the operation's weekend director so initial organizer Johnny Johnson could get some rest, said the Emergency Management Department will visit more chapters for disaster orientation, once the crisis ends.

"This whole operation was time-sensitive with climactic conditions against us. But the Navajo Nation turned it around and made it (the weather) work for us," Nez added.

— To contact reporter Jim Maniaci, telephone (505) 371-5443.