Colorado Floods Leave Longtime Resident Facing Costly Recovery

Matthew Martinez, who has spent nearly all of his 60 years beside the Navajo River, returned to his property near Edith, Colorado, on November 4. Two surges within two weeks had pushed through his home and outbuildings. A horse is missing, his barn is damaged, a corral was swept away and mud covers the house. His tools were carried downstream.

Martinez estimates the damage at no less than $200,000. He had no flood insurance because he could not obtain coverage for a home so close to the river. Several other families in the canyon, some with roots there going back a century, also suffered damage.

Heavy rain across the Four Corners region sent the Navajo, San Juan and Animas rivers and other waterways over their banks. Flooding also affected communities in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. Scientists have linked an increased likelihood of intense southern U.S. rainfall to a strong El Niño, which changes weather patterns.

Martinez was away for knee surgery when the flooding began. He and his fiancée have since had to leave both a son’s home and a hotel after those places flooded. They are now in an Airbnb, but he fears they may lose that option when an emergency housing voucher expires in a few days. A FEMA representative photographed the property after the first flood; the second, three days later, was twice as severe, Martinez said.

Cleanup will be difficult while he recovers. Dumping debris costs $300 per load, and the total could reach thousands. Floodwaters also stripped fertile soil from his land, leaving sand and rock where pasture had been. Martinez is unsure how he will feed his remaining animals next year and worries that life may never return to normal.