Community fears burn scar flooding

SANTA CLARA PUEBLO, N.M. (KRQE) - Dark clouds bring fear to many people in the mountains scarred earlier this year by flames, this time the worry is the flooding.

“This is literally our whole life,” Governor Walter Dasheno said.

The governor of Santa Clara Pueblo explains the canyon just above the Puye Cliffs is especially sacred.

“We use this as a sanctuary basically our church for our community because that's what our life is,” Dasheno said.

A life of fishing, hunting and meditating is now covered in silt and floating away.

For many parts of the state, damaged in a string of recent wildfires is a familiar sight.

“This is what we're seeing around the west as a result of forest fires and then subsequent to forest fires you see even more damage due to flooding,” Senator Tom Udall said.

Pueblo leaders asked senator tom Udall to tour the damage, showing him the work they've done so far.

Clearing out trees and stabilizing drainage ponds, hoping to catch water flowing down a 20 mile stretch above their pueblo.

Thursday those efforts were washed away in a summer storm and funds to fix the problems are not pouring in.

“The earliest time that we would get any type of funding could be 6-9 months and these kind of occurrences can't wait that long,” Dasheno said.

By then the monsoons will be over.

The danger is evident.

A backhoe was swallowed up by fast moving waters and the governor doesn't want the pueblo to be next.

“By putting in measures to protect the community that could protect lives and could protect property,” Dasheno said.

Right now residents of the Santa Clara Pueblo have been warned they need to be ready to evacuate at a moments notice.

The pueblo estimates it will take $39 million to mitigate the flood damage.

The pueblo has pitched in about 12 percent of that.

Tribal leaders are waiting on matching funding from the state.