Storm 2006: Horse owner relives animal evacuation

Storm 2006 left no part of El Paso untouched. In the Upper Valley, horse owners were forced to move their animals to higher ground.

“The water just kept getting higher and higher and higher,” Dawn Oakley recounted to ABC-7 in the days before the 10th anniversary of the severe rainstorm that battered El Paso for three days beginning Aug. 1, 2006.

“I’m not short. I’m 5 foot 8 (inches). The water was midway up my thighs,” Oakley said. Her main concern was her four horses — one, a miniature — that were stabled on the property of a fellow horse trainer.

“Horses have a tendency of having a lot of problems with their feet and legs if they’re in a lot of water. So we had to get them out,” Oakley said. “Once we got them up onto Emory, we had to take them past police cars and a fire engine. The horses had to walk under a yellow tape in order to get through (the neighborhood).”

But that was only the beginning of the trying times for Oakley and other horse owners.

“They still need to be exercised,” Oakley told ABC-7. “So, I would load my horses up in a trailer and take them up onto the mesa — even in the pouring rain — (to make sure) they still got their exercise.”

She wasn’t able to take the horses back to the stables in the Upper Valley for a month while she waited for the ground to dry out. Oakley’s horses remained healthy despite the ordeal.

As one-time newsletter editor for the Horse Club of El Paso, Oakley told ABC-7 that she wrote an editorial that stressed to her fellow horse owners the importance of preparation in the event another storm swept through the Borderland. She took her own advice, telling ABC-7 she is prepared for another major storm.

“I brought in more sand so I could get the horses up out of the water if I had to,” Oakley said, adding, “We’ve never seen anything like it again, but, I’d rather be prepared than caught unaware.”