Hundreds of residents in Chinle have been affected. Navajo Nation issued an evacuation order but many of the residents either didn’t want to leave their property and livestock, or simply couldn’t.

"This is the worst that I’ve seen ever since I’ve been living here," said Dr. Joe Shirley Jr.

The people of Chinle have dealt with flooding before, but never to this magnitude.

"We almost lost a mother and child because of the strong currents underneath," Shirley Jr. said.

Like much of the southwest, Chinle has dealt with a drought, so the rain and snowmelt is welcome, but it’s proven it can be devastating when it comes all at once.

Mud and sand now fills cars and homes.

"There was a smaller berm that had held up for about 15 or 20 years that would have small breaks in it. They would come fix it and the flooding wasn’t near as bad. This time we had a complete break and it took the entire community underwater down," said Brian Hounshell. He's the Apache County director of emergency management.

The Navajo Nation and Apache County emergency management created a joint command center directly overlooking the three-mile affected radius.

Navajo Nation president toured the damage as local leaders weigh temporary and permanent solutions.

"A lot of homes that are right in the face of where the berm broke in the water kept rushing into homes, and some of them, that’s the only thing that they have. It’s really sad to see," Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said.

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