Tag: emergency

Navajo Fire Nearly Contained

Source: Indian Country Today

Hope was in the air along with the smoke on Sunday June 22 as firefighters all but put out the bulk of the Assayii Lake Fire on the Navajo Nation.

Although the fire had grown to 14,712 acres from 13,450, the number of personnel required to fight it dropped to 597, down from last week’s 867, according to InciWeb. And by Sunday June 22 the blaze was 60 percent contained.

RELATED: State of Emergency on Navajo Nation as Assayii Lake Fire Exceeds 13,000 Acres

“They’re going through and trying to identify any hot spots at all to the point where they’re digging and taking off their glove and feeling it to make sure it has cooled completely down,” fire information officer Patricia Bean told the Associated Press. “We’re definitely on the uphill end of this fire in terms of positive things.”

Just a few days earlier the fire, which started on June 13, had only been 20 percent contained. But as of Sunday residents of evacuated communities were slowly being let back in, and some roads were reopening. Navajo Nation officials, ranchers and residents headed into the Chuska Mountains, where the fire was located, over the weekend to round up livestock that had been trapped or had scattered when the blaze struck.

Though not huge by some standards—the 2011 Wallow fire, for example, scorched 469,000 acres, the largest in Arizona history—the Assayii Lake fire torched sheep camps and endangered grazing land in the sacred mountains.

RELATED: Navajo’s Assayii Lake Fire: Heartbreaking Losses, and How to Help

Here, as the flames die down, we bring you some riveting photos of the flames, the smoke and the heroic efforts to quell them.

 

Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/gallery/photo/navajo-nation-fire-nearly-contained-photos-flames-155431

Navajo Nation declares drought emergency

Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) – The nation’s largest American Indian reservation is awash in extreme drought, and that has forced its leaders to declare an emergency.

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly signed the emergency declaration Monday along with a memorandum directing all executive branch agencies to develop plans for responding to the drought and educating the public about its effects.

“We are going to do everything we can to bring our people through this drought. We have many needs, and we are a strong people,” Shelly said in a statement. “Water is precious, and we have to learn how to conserve and change our practices to make sure we prevail through these drought conditions.”

Over the last month, drought on the Navajo Nation – from the tribe’s lands in New Mexico and Arizona to southeastern Utah – has gone from bad to worse. The latest federal drought maps show extreme conditions covering the Four Corners region.

Some areas of the reservation have seen just over one-third of their normal precipitation this year. The soil is dry and wells aren’t producing water like they have in the past, Shelly said.

Making matters worse is summer forecasts are predicting continued high temperatures and below average precipitation for the area. Navajo emergency management officials said that will likely result in lower river flows, which could have negative effects for livestock and municipal wells.

There are about 5,000 stock ponds across the reservation, and officials said as water supplies dwindle, more pressure will be placed on the tribe’s windmills and drinking water wells.

The tribe’s commission on emergency management said drought conditions have already created a critical shortage of water and feed for livestock.

“The land condition will continue to deteriorate and the socio-economic framework of the Navajo Nation will be negatively impacted,” the commission stated. “The livestock owners and farmers will need to plan to protect and preserve their land and their livestock.”

The declaration makes available emergency funds for Navajo communities and clears the way for the tribe to seek a federal disaster declaration.