Museum Fire flooding - background & photos. Help our neighbors on Saturday, June 18.

Saturday, June 18

The City of Flagstaff is organizing volunteers into two shifts. The focus will be on assisting residents who are elderly, disabled, or otherwise unable to rebuild and refortify their sandbag walls. From the City’s website: “Volunteers should meet at the Coconino County Health and Human Services building, located at 2625 N. King St. Shifts will be from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 1 to 4 p.m. Volunteers are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes, pants, and sun protection, and to bring a refillable water bottle, a face covering for dust, and work gloves if available. Food will be provided! Volunteers should register online in advance through this link.”

The United Way of Northern Arizona is organizing volunteers on Saturday. From the United Way “Volunteers are needed to assist Coconino County staff and residents to remove old sandbags and rebuild sandbag walls on identified properties in the Sunnyside area. This is heavy and dirty work. Please meet us at the United Way of Northern AZ office at 1515 E Cedar Avenue, Suite D-1. Check-in begins at 7:30 a.m. Must be age 18 or older. PLEASE pre-register on VolunteerHub. Give UWNA a call if you need assistance creating an account or registering for this event. (928)773-9813

Current work

The city is working on two projects to increase capacity of the Spruce Wash drainage inside city limits. 1. Cedar to Dortha—line the channel with Shotcrete and installing a larger box culvert. 2. Killip School detention basins to detain and drain floodwater. This is a partnership between the city and FUSD where the two large open fields at Killip will double as floodwater detention. Both are expected to be completed this summer. More information can be found here.

Flood control in the county is managed by the Coconino County Flood Control District and more information can be found here.

Natural Resources Conservation Service is investing a little over $3m and the district is contributing $1m on projects to reduce erosion and reduce sediment flowing downstream.

The Forest Service allocated $3.5m for work between city limits and Lockett Ranches to slow stormwater and capture sediment; to create two alluvial fans above Elden Estates on Forest Service land and eventually one alluvial fan close to the burn area.

All of this work is focused mainly on reducing sediment flowing downstream during a flood and the flood control district estimates that all of the projects at completion will reduce sediment by 70-80%. This will help the city’s stormwater infrastructure function at higher efficiency.

The Dortha Inlet project is underway June 11 2022
Another view of the Dortha project taken from a resident’s backyard June 11 2022
Three alarm sirens have been installed. This one on Monte Vista, on on Cedar Ave, and one in Sunnyside June 11 2022

The Dortha Inlet project is underway June 11 2022.

Another view of the Dortha project taken from a resident’s backyard June 11 2022.

Four alarm sirens have been installed. This one on Monte Vista and the rest are in and near Sunnyside June 11 2022.

Potential future work

The Flagstaff Bond Committee recommended, and the City Council approved, placing a bond question on the November 2022 ballot that, among other projects, would invest $26m into projects in the Spruce Wash area in order to help mitigate future flooding.

Background

In July 2019, the Museum Fire started and by the time it was contained, it burned nearly 2,000 acres. (By way of comparison, as of June 14 the Pipeline Fire has burned more than 17,000 acres.) A significant portion of the fire occurred in and around the Spruce Wash and in 2021, heavier than normal rainfall led to flooding off the burn scar. Spruce Wash filled with water and debris left from the fire and the combination overwhelmed the downstream stormwater infrastructure and flooding resulted.

Most residents living below the wash had prepared their properties with sandbags to hold flooding back, but these walls of sandbags were often overtopped and many yards filled with stormwater and debris. Some homes suffered interior flood damage.

Volunteers stepped up to dig out yards, stack more sandbags, and clear muck off of neighborhood sidewalks. It’s hard to imagine the stress and devastation that people experienced unless you were there to witness it. I shoveled out some yards and sidewalks and went door-to-door in Sunnyside to speak with residents and business owners as did many others.

I joined volunteers in this backyard to remove 6-8 inches of mud and debris
I joined the County CERT Team to knock on doors in Sunnyside and provide flood information
City Manager Greg Clifton and I stopped to talk with Lyndsey, a Sunnyside resident while we were removing mud from neighborhood sidewalks

Top left: I joined volunteers in this backyard to remove 6-8 inches of mud and debris. This is the same backyard that the Dortha Inlet project (pictured above) photos were taken.

Coconino County CERT volunteers and me after taking flooding info door-to-door in Sunnyside.

City Manager Greg Clifton and I stopped to talk with Lyndsey, a Sunnyside resident while we were removing mud from neighborhood sidewalks.

Bottom left: This photo was taken near Route 66 in Sunnyside. Floodwater entered this community garden and left mud and debris before the sandbags were built up to keep out water.

Removing mud and flood debris from another backyard.

I attended a half-day of meetings and tours of Schultz and Museum Fire areas along with representatives from the City, County, Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Forest Service, and Congressman O’Halleran. This resulted in funding for projects described above.