Flooded, then forgotten

The destruction caused by the floodwaters that hit the rural mining towns of Globe and Miami last September is difficult to measure.

But in a letter asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help, Gov. Katie Hobbs tried.

Three people died in the floodwaters. Nearly 200 people were displaced from their homes. More than 175,000 tons of debris were left behind.

Entire neighborhoods were inundated, water systems contaminated and “streets became impassable rivers.”

Arizona sent that letter asking for FEMA’s help in October, shortly after the floods hit. In December, FEMA rejected the request, saying the disaster “was not of such severity and magnitude as to be beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments.”

Now, those affected local governments are testing that theory by asking the state to step in in the federal government’s absence.

Officials from Globe, Miami and Gila County asked the state Legislature for about $20 million in this year’s budget to help them prevent another round of destruction as monsoon season approaches in June.

But amid an already contentious budget fight at the Capitol, and state dollars in short supply, flood relief is becoming a hard sell.

Although FEMA rejected their pleas for help, the three jurisdictions each received funding from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Emergency Watershed Protection Program, which helps pay for urgent repairs even without a national emergency declaration. But the program only covers up to 75% of eligible construction costs, forcing local governments to come up with the remaining 25%.

For Miami, a town of about 1,500 people, the roughly $8 million in available USDA funding requires a $2 million local match.

The town’s entire annual budget is about $2.5 million.

Miami, Globe and Gila County appealed to the USDA for a waiver, and are still waiting for a response.

Globe and Miami largely exist because of the mountains around them: Prospectors arrived in the late 1800s for the silver and copper locked in the hills, and those mining camps eventually grew into towns.

But the same steep, mineral-rich landscape that made the area valuable also makes it vulnerable when storms hit. The towns sit low in a rocky bowl, and in recent years, the flood risk has gotten worse.

In 2021, the Telegraph and Mescal fires burned more than 250,000 acres around the Globe-Miami area. Then, the summer monsoon season dumped rainwater on fresh burn scars. The fire had stripped away the soil and damaged its ability to absorb water.

So instead of soaking in, the rain rushed downhill, carrying debris with it.

Then, more intense rainfall hit the same burn scar again last September, and destruction reached a new level.

Globe Mayor Al Gameros is still pushing FEMA to reconsider Arizona’s request for federal disaster aid, and he recently went to D.C. to lobby federal officials. FEMA assistance would come with a much smaller local match than the USDA funding Globe is currently relying on, which leaves the city responsible for about $5 million.

Besides his trips to lobby Congress, Gameros is also making his case to another slow-moving institution: the Arizona Legislature.

The Globe mayor joined eight other local officials from Miami and Gila County at a February committee hearing to ask lawmakers for help. Republican Rep. Walt Blackman, whose district includes the Globe-Miami area, proposed $25 million of state aid in a standalone appropriation bill.

Blackman’s bill died after Republican Rep. David Livingston, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, declined to give it a hearing.

Appropriations bills often get folded into the larger budget discussion anyway, but that avenue isn’t looking promising.

Budget talks broke down in March after Hobbs walked away from negotiations and called on Republican lawmakers to release their own spending plan. They did, although the proposal was packed with nonstarters for the Democratic governor, and she vetoed it within hours of it passing.

Even if Hobbs had signed it, the GOP budget didn’t include the flood-relief funding.

Gameros made another trip to the Capitol in late April to remind lawmakers, during a hearing on the budget bills, that the disaster had not gone away.

Livingston said he was open to “using other funds” to help cover the costs, but he didn’t appear inclined to use the state’s shrinking General Fund, given Arizona’s shaky finances.

Republican lawmakers and the governor have since restarted budget negotiations, but there isn’t much extra money to go around. The Legislature’s financial experts recently warned that things will get worse as the war in Iran continues.

The Miami, Globe and Gila County officials are still hopeful — Hobbs mentioned her tour of the Globe devastation in this year’s State of the State address, and shamed the federal government for denying relief.

Hobbs declared a state of emergency for Gila County after September’s storms, which released $200,000 from the Governor’s Emergency Fund while deploying more support from state agencies.

Her office declined to comment on whether the governor will commit to flood relief funding in the budget, but pointed out that her executive budget proposal would add $20 million to the Governor’s Emergency Fund. That fund currently gets $4 million a year to help respond to major disasters across the state.

Blackman said he’ll keep pushing to get the flood-relief money into the final deal.

Gila County, which contains Globe and Miami, has access to its own pot of USDA funding: about $26 million, which requires an $8 million match.

But the county says it can’t afford to access that money without help.

Only about 3% of Gila County’s land is privately owned, Board of Supervisors Chair Steve Christensen told us, the smallest share of any Arizona county. That leaves the county with a tiny property-tax base to draw from.

Without any assurances of help from the Legislature, Gila County’s supervisors approved up to $18 million in bonds in April to keep flood-recovery work moving as the county waits for news about the state and federal reimbursement.

In the eight months since the storms hit, Miami and Globe have largely dug themselves out of the visible wreckage. Volunteer groups and workers from nearby mines helped clear mud and debris from roads, homes and businesses. But the storms caused deeper damages that will put the area in danger when more rain comes, and those repairs are far more expensive.

Clogged washes can’t hold as much water, so when the next storm hits, floodwater can rise faster, overtop bridges and roads, and push more debris into town.

Miami is first clearing out the creeks and washes that were filled with debris during the flood. Globe similarly plans to use its more than $24 million in USDA funding to dig sediment out of Pinal Creek, which snakes through the city.

There’s a lot more work to be done, and not a lot of time to do it before the summer monsoon season.

Gameros said Globe’s sewer system took damage in the flooding, and while it’s currently functioning, it likely couldn’t withstand another hit. Meanwhile, massive piles of storm debris are still sitting on county property, waiting to be hauled to disposal sites.

In Miami, Madrid said the town’s most urgent but expensive projects are on the west side, where last year’s flooding turned deadly. A woman was swept away in her car during the flood, the mayor said, and her body was later recovered about 10 miles away.

After the town clears out washes with its USDA funding, it still needs massive flood-control projects in that area.

Climate experts say Arizona’s in for a wetter-than-usual summer.