By Molly Ann Howell
Managing Editor
More than five inches of rain have fallen on parts of the City of Gallup since July 16, triggering major local flooding.
In response, Gallup Fire Chief Jon Pairett asked the city council during its July 28 meeting to declare a municipal emergency—a necessary step to secure state financial aid for infrastructure repairs.
“When a community goes through a natural disaster or emergency, the first step is declaring a disaster to the state,” Pairett explained. He noted, however, that an emergency declaration alone doesn’t guarantee state funding.
To qualify for aid, McKinley County as a whole—not only the City of Gallup—must reach a combined loss threshold of $356,000. If the county meets that financial benchmark, the governor must then formally concur with the disaster declaration.
To assess whether the city meets that mark, a team led by Pairett began evaluating municipal buildings and infrastructure July 28. The team is auditing local damages to determine which repair costs count toward the state threshold. During their first day of assessments, they inspected 12 residential properties.
“We have some homes where people probably can’t live,” Pairett said.
Securing funding and completing repairs will take time. Pairett emphasized that Gallup and McKinley County must first complete the formal disaster declarations. Once his team estimates the full cost of the damage, they will submit those figures to state officials. Under standard emergency protocols, the state typically reimburses municipalities for insurance deductible costs, covering roughly 75% of a public repair project.
Unfortunately, state funding doesn’t cover private homes or businesses, forcing affected residents to rely on their own insurance policies. Pairett identified this restriction as a major challenge for Gallup residents. During his initial damage assessments, many homeowners told him they lacked flood coverage entirely or were significantly underinsured.
Even so, assistance options remain possible. Pairett noted that if flooding severely damages a sufficient amount of homes and in a variety of ways, the state may ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency to step in and provide direct aid to residents.
“We’re going to do the best we can to show the State of New Mexico that we have damaged infrastructure, damaged houses, and significant costs from this flooding,” Pairett said.
Time is a factor, as state rules give municipalities a strict window to apply for disaster relief. To avoid missing the deadline, Pairett proactively contacted state officials to give preliminary notice of the application. He stressed that cities should declare a disaster immediately and calculate costs as they go, rather than delaying the declaration while assessing damage.
Councilor Sarah Piano, Dist. 3, voiced strong support for the emergency declaration, highlighting the unexpected nature of the recent storms.
“It was a scary time for people,” she said. “Even if you have rental or mortgage insurance, it probably isn’t going to cover flooding because that requires specific coverage. What normal person in this town would have flood insurance when we’ve been in a drought for a year?”
Before the council voted, Pairett issued a public reminder regarding what qualifies as storm damage. He urged residents to contact the police or fire departments only for damage directly caused by recent rainfall.
“If someone’s had a roof leak for the last 10 years and the storm made it worse, that’s not storm damage—that’s a maintenance issue,” Pairett said.
Concluding his remarks on the response effort, Pairett praised both the community members who helped strangers during the deluge and the municipal employees from nearly every city department who stepped up to assist. He gave special recognition to employees who live in Zuni, a community that suffered severe flooding of their own.
“I can’t tell you what’s more heartbreaking—seeing city employees, firefighters, and police officers who are worried about their own homes, yet out here trying to protect everyone else’s,” Pairett said.
Meanwhile, broader relief efforts were already underway.
On July 24, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an emergency order deploying 13 Army National Guard soldiers and an Air National Guard airman to Zuni Pueblo. The guardsmen are providing engineering support, clearing roads, and reinforcing berms to restore access and protect critical infrastructure.
“When disaster strikes, readiness matters,” Maj. Gen. Miguel Aguilar, the Adjutant General of New Mexico said in a press release. “New Mexico funds a small, dedicated standing team of National Guard personnel who train year-round for precisely these moments. Their ready expertise in heavy equipment operations, swift water rescue, and emergency management support is increasingly critical to the safety of our state.”
A previous article published on the Sun’s website July 25 incorrectly reported that Lujan Grisham allocated $250,000 in emergency National Guard funding to Gallup and Zuni Pueblo. The correct figure is $500,000.
In a July 27 interview with the Sun, Gallup Mayor Marc DePaul said he didn’t know how much of that money was coming to Gallup, nor how it was going to be used.
Following the July 28 discussion, the Gallup City Council voted unanimously to declare a disaster to the state. The McKinley County Commissioners will declare a state of emergency at an upcoming meeting as well
MCKINLEY COUNTY MULTI-JURISDICTIONAL HAZARD MITIGATION PLAN
Alongside the immediate flood response, Pairett presented an update on the McKinley County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan.
Three local entities jointly manage the plan: the City of Gallup, McKinley County, and Gallup-McKinley County Schools. Because these mitigation strategies expire every five years, local agencies must periodically update and approve them. Officials create each new plan roughly two years before the current one expires; as a result, planners initiated the draft for the 2026–2031 cycle in 2024.
Hazard mitigation plans reduce injury and property damage by establishing proactive prevention and protection measures before disasters strike. For severe rain events, mitigation efforts might include deploying sandbags or upgrading municipal drainage systems.
To draft the document, the planning committee reviews historical disaster patterns to determine local vulnerabilities. McKinley County officials know they must prepare for both recurring droughts and occasional severe floods. Pairett noted that as an urban center, Gallup often experiences natural disasters differently than the surrounding rural areas of McKinley County.
During the planning process, the committee evaluates key questions: How frequently do these disasters occur? What impact do they have on the community?
Adopting an approved mitigation plan grants municipalities access to specific federal grants when disasters strike. However, because funding is limited, local leaders must prioritize high-impact projects, such as addressing potential dam failures.
The city council voted unanimously to approve the updated plan. Pairett will now submit the document to the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for review before it moves to FEMA for final approval.
The Sun will publish a detailed follow-up article exploring the specific provisions of the Hazard Mitigation Plan in an upcoming edition.
