Photo: Flood Defense Group

A NOAQ temporary flood barrier was recently used in a spectacular manner to save the Navajo nation community of Chinle, Arizona from flooding. After nearly 3 days of effort to stop water from flowing through an earthen levee breach, NOAQ distributor Keith Anderson from Flood Defense Group, and his team of local Navajo Nation workers, were able to effectively deploy a NOAQ Boxwall upstream from the levee breach to redirect floodwaters that were actively flooding the community.

“We were able to redirect the water faster than two bulldozers, three bobcats and a front end loader who were trying to make a levee” Anderson reported in a text message the same day. “The town is still flooded, but we stopped the water going into the town after about three hours when everyone else has been working on it for three days. BAM!!!!”

“A NOAQ Boxwall is not intended to be put on loose sand in the middle of a fast flowing river” says Sigurd Melin, CEO of Swedish company NOAQ, “but somehow they managed to do it. An unexpected success story.”

Anderson later commented that ”The ability to quickly mobilize the NOAQ Boxwall flood barrier turned out to be a game changer. The Boxwall provided a unique capability of being able to hand carry it to the deployment location which was inaccessible by heavy machinery. The entire solution to stop flooding in this case, arrived in the back of a pick-up truck and was deployed within hours.  It was an impressive outcome and we were honored for the ability to provide flood barriers in Arizona to assist the Navajo Nation within a matter of hours” he said.

Video by: Keith Anderson, Flood Defense Group