The City of Globe, Town of Miami, and Gila County are still working to determine exactly how many homes were impacted by last month’s devastating storms and floods.
Miami City Manager Alexis Rivera estimates that as many as 50 homes and at least seven businesses within town limits sustained damage. He said landslides of rocks and mud had a major impact, and that 120,000 cubic yards of debris had been removed within three days after the storms.
At the Salvation Army office in Globe, a couple waiting for assistance declined to be interviewed, but shared that their home was among those destroyed.
“We used to live in Miami,” one of them said quietly. “Now we are homeless.”
They left their appointment with bags of donated food and basic necessities.
During Globe City Council’s special meeting on October 1, the city estimated 98 homes were impacted by the flood. Homes along Jesse Hayes Road, where Pinal Creek runs directly behind the properties, were among the hardest hit.
Along that road, houses now display green, yellow, or red tags on their front doors — visual markers from the city’s initial safety assessments, explains Mayor Al Gameros.
Green indicates a home is safe to enter, yellow means to proceed with caution, and red means the home is unsafe due to structural hazards.
Homeowners now need to work with their insurance companies to assess damage, Gameros says. In some cases, engineers may need to determine whether a structure must be condemned.
Ed and Pat Martinez, who have lived on Jesse Hayes Road for 25 years, were home when the floodwaters rushed in the evening of September 26.
Ed had been reading in his reading room, and Pat was watching TV with their dog when the house began to fill with water.
“The water just went through all the rooms, all the same level, about three and a half feet,” Ed says.
Soon, the water was up to Pat’s chest, and the couple had to get their dogs onto the couches to stay afloat above the water.
“You lose all common sense, really, because you just don't know what to do when you're panicking,” Ed says.
Eventually, the water started to recede.
“Then we were able to calm ourselves down and take whatever proper action was needed to make sure we were all okay.”
Days later, the Martinez home received a green tag, but their neighbors’ homes did not. The house next door has a red tag, and so does the house across the street.
“The fact that the house is a little newer, and it's a block house, saved us a lot,” he says. “My neighbors are in older houses, they suffered a heck of a lot more than we did. We're very fortunate.”
They’ve since cleared mud, replaced drywall, installed new electrical systems, and begun rebuilding. They credit family, friends, and all of the organizations that came to help — including the Red Cross, Freeport-McMoRan, and the Mormon community, to name a few — for helping them get this far.
“Without them, we would definitely not be in the situation that we are right now,” Ed says. “Everything is gone. We have to start over.”
Gila County Emergency Manager Carl Melford says the total number of affected homes countywide is still unknown.
“The estimated damage assessment covers a rather large footprint,” he says.
As of October 7, Melford’s team was still discovering impacted properties through self-reporting. For instance, some homes along 11th Street in Globe, outside the main flood path, were recently added to the list, he said.
Down the road from the Martinez family, John and Heather (Dorinda) Kenney live at Mountaingate Estates, a mobile home park on Six Shooter Canyon Road, just outside city limits.
The couple has lived there for 11 years in a mobile home they purchased. They both live on their pension and say they are still recovering from flood damage from 2021.
“Our floor fell apart in his bedroom,” Heather says. “So he moved into mine. And our bathroom floor, the toilet is just hanging on a piece of wood. And it's ready to go through the floor.”
Still, last month’s flood was far worse, she says.
“Whatever it was, was just like a tidal wave,” she recalls. “This was the worst thing I've ever seen. And I thought the last one was bad.”
“You had all the timber and trash and everything all up and down the road. It was really hard to maneuver around it,” she says. “That's the first thing I saw, it just really blew my mind, was big trees. Everywhere, all the way across the water, just floating down.”
When the flood came, John escaped out the front door with their dogs, and Heather climbed through a window. Once the water receded enough, they were able to get in the car and drive away.
Now, days later, they are working to recover from double damage.
“Our house is destroyed inside,” Heather says.
“We spent the rest of the time shoveling mud out of here. Well, we're tired of shoveling,” John adds. “I'm 70. Not to mention, this used to be level.”
The Red Cross later told them the flood had shifted their house by 4 inches off its foundation.
A few houses away from the Martinez home, Robert and Renee Nims have lived on Jesse Hayes for 21 years in a 1930s home they restored. They moved from Phoenix to Globe to “escape the rat race” and semi-retire. They planted fruit trees and Robert built additions to their house — a sewing room, washroom, and a back porch.
In all their years there, the creek waters had never gotten within three feet of their retaining wall, Robert says.
“And that water has flowed down that [creek], I bet, 60 miles an hour,” he adds. “I mean, we've had waves, you could surf one back there. And we never had a problem.”
With the September flood, though, Robert and Renee lost nearly everything. The retaining wall was destroyed. Their appliances, like their refrigerator and dishwasher, had to be thrown out. The lawnmower and wheelbarrow are buried in debris in what is now a lopsided shed. The garage was dislodged. Robert’s woodworking tools are caked in mud.
The Nims weren’t home when the flood hit, but their neighbors next door and across the street were trapped inside and barely escaped.
Now, “people are all over,” he says of his neighbors. “They're staying with friends and staying in motel rooms.”
Following the initial city assessments, the Nims’ house got a yellow tag.
“We're waiting for a structural engineer,” Robert says. “I’ve got a small flood insurance policy, but I don't know what it's going to cover.”
“Right now, they ain't going to do nothing until we get a structural engineer out here.”
The couple is now living in a borrowed trailer and searching for a storage unit where they can put some of their salvaged belongings. They’re still paying the mortgage and utility bills on their home.
“I hope they condemn it,” Robert laments. “I love my house. I put a lot of love into it, but I hope they condemn it so the insurance that I have will pay that loan off so I don't have a house payment for a house that I can't live in.”
He takes a long look around his yard and at the porch he built.
“This was our little paradise,” he says. “We used to sit back here and watch the train go by. We'd sit back here and watch the [creek] run.”
“We're afraid to live here now,” he says, shaking his head.
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