One local couple saw firsthand how an arroyo near their property can no longer contain the elevated floodwaters that Las Vegas now faces due to the burn scar made by the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire.
Jim Haswell was on his North Gonzales Street property on June 21 when the heavy rainfall that led to evacuations and a water crisis also caused the Arroyo Hermanos to overflow. The arroyo, which runs adjacent to Haswell’s property, disappeared under a gush of brown water that then flooded his home, damaged a casita he and his wife Rachel Relin Haswell rent as an AirBnB, destroyed their shed and drowned most of their chickens.
The Arroyo Hermanos flows under the Acequia Madre, which can be said to practically flow through Haswell and Relin Haswell’s property.
Haswell noted in an email to city officials on July 14 that the Arroyo Hermanos “breached its banks and changed its direction from eastward toward the Gallinas River to northward onto our property.”
Haswell and Relin Haswell hope that city officials will help protect their property by doing something about the arroyo’s potential flooding. Haswell suggested short- and long-term solutions in his July 14 email. Although City Manager Tim Montgomery quickly acknowledged the email with a brief reply, as of July 31, Haswell has not heard from him again.
The property on North Gonzales Street was left under four feet of water, Haswell notes in his email. There was enough water to flood the crawl spaces in both the main home and the AirBnB casita. The main home, Haswell notes in his email, is a significant historic home on the National Historic Register that was flooded with mud and water.
“We had a lake here,” Haswell said during an in-person interview on July 27. “It took some effort to drain it. A lot of effort.”
Part of that effort involved digging two trenches so that the water on Haswell’s and Relin Haswell’s property could more easily flow into the Acequia Madre. It took less than 48 hours for the lake that had settled on the property to drain, Haswell said, leaving a mess of mud and random debris in its wake.
Haswell and Relin Haswell are now left not only with the trauma of what happened, but also with the challenge of ensuring their property is safe from a similar situation happening again.
“Our big concern, really, is how to get the city’s attention to do anything,” Relin Haswell said. “Because every time it rains, we panic, we run outside. So do our neighbors.”
Haswell and Relin Haswell said they believe it is the city’s responsibility to maintain the Arroyo Hermanos. She said she was told by a FEMA official that the water should have been diverted as there were flash flood warnings prior to the June 21 storm.
“Somehow, that didn’t get conveyed, or the person wasn’t at their station to do that,” Relin Haswell said.
“The arroyo’s function is storm drainage,” she went on to state. “A combination of the flooding, and not being diverted, directed (the water) here. The only place for (the water) to go was our property.”
Jim Haswell said he and his wife have requested help from city officials to secure the property against future flooding while offering their own possible solutions.
“I don’t come with a problem, I come with a solution,” Jim Haswell said of his approach to city officials. He said he approached them with two solutions. One is to install concrete Jersey barriers near the arroyo.
Typically used to keep traffic from crossing lanes, concrete Jersey barriers could also be used as a barrier against flooding. Haswell said concrete Jersey barriers would have to be provided through the Department of Transportation, and as such, must be requested through the city.
The other solution Jim Haswell proposed is to install HESCO baskets near the arroyo. These are like big sandbags that can be used to create a wall or barrier.
Still, Haswell and Relin Haswell said, concrete Jersey barriers or HESCO baskets would be temporary solutions to a problem that will likely be ongoing. Relin Haswell said that the long-term solution to the arroyo’s potential flooding would involve engineering a new landscape around the neighborhood and the Arroyo Hermanos so that large amounts of water can be adequately drained.
“Basically, we’re asking for short-term and long-term help,” Relin Haswell said.
