Wind rips roof off of brothers' home

Chris Barney sits outside his trailer in St. Michaels Thursday afternoon with a cup of coffee. Barney and his brother Antonio say they are getting no assistance from their chapter after wind ripped the roof off the trailer. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

High winds ripped the roof off Chris and Antonio Barney's trailer in St. Michaels Wednesday afternoon. The brothers were home and getting ready to cook lunch when the roof came off. [Photo by John A. Bowersmith/Independent]

ST. MICHAELS — Two brothers living in a mobile home just outside the entry gate to St. Michaels Chapter House escaped injury Wednesday afternoon when high winds peeled off the roof and deposited it on the back side of the trailer.

Antonio and Christopher Barney later walked over to the chapter to seek emergency assistance. They were given an application to fill out and return, but no help, leaving the brothers to spend the night in their newly "air conditioned" trailer. So, as Thursday morning approached, of course it just had to start snowing.

St. Michaels/Oak Springs Delegate Curran Hannon was not happy with the seemingly callous attitude of the chapter coordinator and plans to tackle the issue at Sunday's chapter meeting. The coordinator was attending a meeting Thursday and was unavailable, according to Hannon.

"We had a housing committee established here at the chapter a couple years back. It's been abolished, they've been removed, and everything went back under the chapter administration.

"When this housing committee was intact they had a plan of operation that they were going by, and when a situation like this arose, in their plan of operation it stated that they can dip into the housing discretionary fund.

"This being an emergency case, they would put up the people in a motel and the housing discretionary funding would be used to pay the motel bill while the chapter works on getting a quote from three places to get materials and to get PEP workers to repair the roof. While it's being repaired, they would be at the motel. When it's done, they would come back," he said.

Hannon went inside the trailer Wednesday afternoon and found that in addition to the lack of roof, "the floor is all rotted. They have pieces of plywood some very old that they've kind of pieced together and that's what they're walking on."

When the roof blew off, a piece of sheetrock they were using for ceiling collapsed into the bedroom-turned-dining room. "So it's very cold in there and something has to be done to help these two people," Hannon said.

"What the coordinator did was give these two individuals an application to fill out, and I guess they were told to bring in three quotes. But they're going to need an estimator to tell them what materials they're going to need," he said.

Forget lunch
Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, Antonio and Christopher had just gotten a fire going in the living room woodstove that they also use to cook their meals. They had put on a pot of coffee and Antonio was getting ready to fry a pan of potatoes for their late afternoon snack, when the wind tore through.

Antonio had just finished washing up and was turning to walk away from the kitchen/dining area when a large concrete block (used to hold the tin down) came crashing through the roof. "That thing almost fell on his head," Chris said.

Antonio said there was one big blast of wind and one "twister."

"It came in between the houses. The first one came in and then 10 minutes later, another one came in. That's when it blew it off and that's when it really started getting windy," Chris added.

"After the roof blew off, the stovepipe fell off the stove and all that flame was hitting against the wall," Antonio said. Fortunately, the brothers had a large metal heat-shield nailed to the wall behind the stove.

"We hurried and opened it (stove) up and got water, anything that was liquid" to try to douse the fire. "I even had to use a gallon of milk," Antonio said.

The roof over the living room portion of the trailer remained intact and the house began to fill with smoke, according to Chris.

"It choked me out,"said Antonio, who was still coughing Thursday morning as he brewed a fresh pot of coffee outdoors on an elevated metal grate.

The brothers' sister, Patricia Barney, and her family live in the house next door. She was upset at the treatment her brothers received at the chapter and questioned why the chapter coordinator did not offer to help them fill out the application on the spot.

"She could have at least come down here to look at it and see what they really need. Her being the chapter coordinator, that's what she should have done. She's not even helping the community, and that's her job."

Chris said, "At least if they would have given us a tarp, we could have covered the holes on top to keep the air out."

To the rescue
Patricia's daughter, Shannon Hill, said, "This morning we found out they (chapter officials) have funds that Emergency Management divided among all the chapters to help with situations like this, and they're telling the entire community, 'We don't have no money for you guys. We can't help you guys.' Even something like this, they're not helping."

Patricia took time off from her job with the tribe Thursday morning to drive her brothers around to try to get help. "We went to Fort Defiance, we went to Social Services, we went to Navajo Housing Authority to see what they can help us with. But we got referred back to Emergency Management services right here by the flea market" in Window Rock.

"So we've been there for an hour talking to Louis Begay. He called here and there, trying to get information, trying to see if he could get shelter for my brothers. He called the Red Cross in Flagstaff and down in Phoenix and Mesa. The only place they can help my brothers to be in a warm place to sleep tonight is to get them to Holbrook, Winslow or Flagstaff. And this will only be for three nights.

"I asked him what's wrong with the hotels in Window Rock and in St. Michaels," she said.

"Right now, we're just waiting for Emergency Management in Window Rock to come up here. It's too cold for these guys to sleep in here. They don't have no running water, no electricity. Nothing," Patricia said.

Shannon said her uncles have been trying to get the chapter to help them for five-plus years, "and every time they've gone, the chapter house says, 'We have no money. We can't help you.'

"Now, look: A big disaster. They see it. They're right there. They seen the roof blow over yesterday. They seen the whole thing and they told them, 'We still can't help you.' "

Patricia said Hannon and the chapter vice president were the only ones who came by to try to get something done.

Band-aid for now
Chris and Antonio slept in the trailer Wednesday night."They didn't want to sleep at my house because my house is full," their sister said.

"Yeah, we slept in here," Chris admitted. "It got cold about 3 o'clock in the morning. We had to get up and build a fire outside." They stayed by the fire to keep warm until their sister made them come into her house.

Shannon said, "The only department that's actually put a hand in to help is Emergency Management. They got on the phone with Red Cross to try and help. For almost two hours Louis Begay was on the phone trying to find a way to help."

Patricia took her brothers to Social Services and Navajo Housing Authority. "NHA said they have one unit, but that unit is taken because they had a burnout," Patricia said. And they all needed a copy of the police report, which the brothers were told wouldn't be ready until today.

By late Thursday with the help of the Red Cross, Begay had successfully placed the Barney brothers in a room at Quality Inn. By 9 p.m. they were comfortably munching on bologna sandwiches and drinking fruit punch their only food.

But they were inside, out of the wind, and their favorite show, wrestling, was playing on the television.

Chris and Antonio have three days before they are once again turned out into the cold unless Emergency Management can get Red Cross to spring for the motel room an extra day. That will carry them through until Sunday, when they hope to get assistance from the chapter.