As Coconino County, Flagstaff officials are encouraging the community to seek help from local elders in repairing flood walls

“I really want to emphasize that. It’s really important that people take responsibility and do as much of this work as possible as we have limited resources, ”Andreani told the Arizona Daily Sun. “This is a public service, but we really need people to help keep it going and to gather their neighbors, their family members.”

Andreani said the county will always be able to supply additional pallets of ash bags or provide these materials, but a large part of the work needs to be done by individual residents and neighbors helping the neighbors.

And that kind of community support is what Ron Talbott and his wife count on to get the job done.

Talbott, who lives on East Harmony’s cul-de-sac, said he has tarpaulin most of his sandbag walls for the past two years, so the number of bags in need of replacement is relatively small.

But if he tries to replace them, probably at some point in the next month, he will rely on the help of other members of his church to help repair the walls, just as they helped him build the walls two years ago.

Talbott, a retired civil engineer who previously worked for the City of Flagstaff, said he understood the difficult task the city and county had in preparing for the potential floods, despite the frustration of many of his neighbors.