Gallup flooding hits Route 66 businesses for third time this year

Several streets in Gallup flooded on Monday, for the third time this year, hitting businesses along Route 66. With more rain expected later this week, the city is urging residents to stay off Route 66 during storms.

The flooding sent two to three feet of water through parts of downtown, including storefronts that sit along Route 66.

“With these storefronts here along Route 66, some of them had a few inches of water inside the building, and as cars drive by, the water would displace right into their front door,” Peter Campos, CEO of the Gallup McKinley County Chamber of Commerce, said.

Cha’ahh owner Leo Flores said the business bought a flood control barrier and waterproofed the floor ahead of the storms.

“That helped mitigate some of the water, so it just went a quarter inside the building,” Flores said.

Gallup Mayor Marc DePauli said the city has not seen flooding on this scale in decades.

“The last time we had big floods like this was in 2005, 2006,” DePauli said.

DePauli said the drainage system built alongside Route 66 about 100 years ago cannot move large volumes of water out of downtown and toward the Puerco River. He said channels are filled with vegetation and need to be cleared and recontoured.

“There hasn’t been a lot of maintenance done on those,” DePauli said. “They’re full of vegetation. Vegetation has to be removed, and they have to be recontoured so water will flow out of downtown and into the Puerco River.”

Campos said the city has run into jurisdictional issues when trying to clear storm drains.

“The city does not own the property where the storm drainage goes through, and they’ve had difficulties working with the railroad and the state to be allowed to clear out the soil and silt that gets built up in there,” Campos said.

The City of Gallup is asking residents to avoid driving through standing water when two feet or more is on the roads. Crews are working to clear gutters and drains ahead of the next storm.