Stella Wilson is pleading with families to wait for help rather than risk dangerous roads after flash flooding on the Navajo Nation killed her mother, niece, and her mother’s best friend.
Wilson’s mother, Elsie Begay, was driving home to Newcomb, New Mexico, on Tuesday with her 7-year-old granddaughter, Lucy Allison Mike, and supplies for the girl’s upcoming eighth birthday party. Their truck became stuck in mud as heavy storms rolled through the Four Corners region. Begay’s daughter, Kalisi Begay, chose to walk home while her mother and daughter remained with the vehicle.
The water rose rapidly. Begay called her best friend, Dora Franklin, for assistance. The three were swept away while attempting to cross a wash.
“I think she was just wanting to get home,” Wilson, Begay’s niece, said.
Wilson said road conditions remain treacherous and her family still cannot reach her own mother. She urged patience from others facing similar circumstances.
“I just want to make sure other families make it home,” she said.
The deaths of Begay, Mike, and Franklin came as a late-season surge of monsoon moisture brought destructive flash flooding across the Navajo Nation this week. The storms have damaged roads, forced evacuations, and left multiple communities isolated.
Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren declared a state of emergency on Friday. Some communities remained cut off by standing water and road damage as rain continued to fall, with multiple roads still closed.
“Please use alternate routes, check on our elders and relatives, and follow the guidance of our emergency personnel,” Nygren said in a statement.
Navajo police reported that three families in Shiprock, New Mexico, were evacuated Friday evening due to rising water levels and flooding near the San Juan River.
About 40 miles south of Newcomb in Mexican Springs, flooding rendered numerous dirt and gravel roads impassable, stranding some families and preventing others from reaching home. Darnell Etsitty, a maintenance worker with the local government, spent Friday constructing alternate routes to help residents get in and out.
“A lot of ditches are washed out, the culvert pipes are gone. There’s big old, massive holes in the road,” Etsitty said.
Etsitty added that the Mexican Springs Chapter House had been converted into a temporary shelter, with volunteers using ATVs to deliver food, water, and supplies to stranded households.
Begay worked as a business technician at Sanostee Day School, where Mike attended as a third grader. Franklin worked as a bus driver for another nearby school. Wilson said both women loved working with children.
Begay decorated the school’s front office for every holiday and made everyone feel welcome, Wilson said. Franklin gave candy to kids as they boarded her bus.
Mike had been crowned “Miss Sanostee Day School” on Sept. 4 and was looking forward to her birthday party, which had been scheduled for next Tuesday. Wilson described her niece as “beautiful” and “bright.”
“She was a big blessing to her family,” Wilson said.
Newcomb is a community of about 400 people located in northwestern New Mexico.