Failed pumps leave Maloney Ave. inundated

ABOVE: A daring driver plows through knee deep water Friday afternoon after heavy rains and a discarded jacket clogging the storm drain led to flooding along Maloney Avenue in Gallup. A New Mexico department of transportation worker, in the background, removed the blockage and the street cleared of water shortly after. [photo by Jeff Jones / Independent] BELOW: New Mexico Department of Transportation maintenance workers Jeremy Cobb and Eddie Hernandez walk through the puddle of water on Maloney Avenue of Wednesday morning. The pumps that keep water from building up on the road failed again after Tuesday's heavy rain storm. [photo by Brian Leddy / Independent]

By Kevin Killough
Staff writer

GALLUP — As the city tries to dry from the most recent rains, weather forecasts are calling for yet more rain with flash flood warnings across the area. According to the National Weather Service, the Gallup area is over twice the normal precipitation for this month. As a result, residents are dealing with power outages and flood damage across the city.

Local resident Greg Orphey had to forego breakfast at Denny’s because of power outages Wednesday, which he said affected much of the east side of town.

“The east side Denny’s was closed because there was no power,” Orphey said.

Ayo Erinle, a doctor at a local hospital, lives in a new subdivision in the southern part of town off Nizhoni Boulevard. He’s replacing his carpets because of flooding in his subdivision.

“It’s been an inconvenience, but the builders seem to be doing the best they can,” Erinle said.

Bonnie Rodgers, owner/broker of Rodger’s Realty, watched recently as the arroyo next to the subdivision swelled to uncomfortable levels.

“It was just like a river,” she said.

She said that another home also experienced some flood damage, and as the subdivision gets more developed, so will the drainage systems. As a former El Paso, Texas, resident, she said that flash floods come with the territory.

“Gallup is characteristic of a lot of places in the Southwest,” she said.

West Maloney Avenue also got hit hard with flooding, forcing closure of part of the street. The transformer for a pumping system failed, creating a lake covering most of the street Wednesday. Kenny Monday, of the New Mexico Department of Transportation, which maintains the pumps, said that the problem was a fuse and they expected the pumps to be functioning again before the next afternoon downpour.

“I think it’ll be good,” Monday said.

In addition, county, state, and city crews opened up a gate where the system drains into the Rio Puerco. With the pumps running and the blockage free, Monday said he expected any future flooding problems to be resolved.

“That gate on the other side has been shut so long, we had to get a backhoe in to get the dirt out of the way,” he said.
It’s a good thing. The National Weather Service is predicting daily thunderstorms well into next week.