ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Three generations of a Navajo family were heading home from picking up supplies for an 8th birthday party when their truck got stuck in mud as storms with heavy rain rolled through the area.
Kalisi Begay opted to walk home while her mother and 7-year-old daughter stayed behind. The water rose quickly. Soon the grandmother and granddaughter, along with a friend they had called for help, were swept away in the floodwaters while trying to cross a wash.
Elsie Begay, her granddaughter Lucy Allison Mike, and Begay’s best friend Dora Franklin died in the flood Tuesday near Newcomb, New Mexico, a community of about 400 people, family members said Friday.
“I think she was just wanting to get home,” said Stella Wilson, Begay's niece.
Flash flooding across the Navajo Nation this week has damaged roads, forced evacuations and claimed the three lives as a late-season surge of monsoon moisture brings heavy rain to the Four Corners region. Navajo police said three families in Shiprock, New Mexico, were evacuated Friday evening due to rising water levels and flooding near the San Juan River.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren declared a state of emergency Friday as some communities remained isolated by standing water and road damage and rain continued to fall. Multiple roads on the Navajo Nation remained closed Friday.
“Please use alternate routes, check on our elders and relatives, and follow the guidance of our emergency personnel,” Nygren said in a statement.
About 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Newcomb in the small community of Mexican Springs, flooding made many dirt and gravel roads impassable, stranding some families and leaving others unable to reach home.
“A lot of ditches are washed out, the culvert pipes are gone. There’s big old, massive holes in the road,” said Darnell Etsitty, a maintenance worker with the local government who spent Friday building alternate routes to help people get in and out.
Etsitty said the Mexican Springs Chapter House had been converted into a temporary shelter and volunteers are using ATVs to deliver food, water and supplies to stranded households.
Wilson said the road conditions continue to be bad, and her family still can’t get to Wilson’s mother. She urged others to be patient and wait for help.
“I just want to make sure other families make it home,” she said.
Elsie Begay worked as a business technician at Sanostee Day School, where Mike attended as a third grader. Franklin was a bus driver for another nearby school.
Begay and Franklin loved working with kids, Wilson said. Begay would decorate the school’s front office for every holiday and make everyone feel welcome, and Franklin would give candy to kids as they got on the bus, she said. Begay also participated in fundraisers and helped with community events.
Mike was recently crowned “Miss Sanostee Day School” on Sept. 4 and was looking forward to her 8th birthday party next Tuesday. Wilson described her niece as “beautiful” and “bright.”
“She was a big blessing to her family,” Wilson said.