SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — At least 200 homes were damaged during a deadly flash flood in the mountain village of Ruidoso, and local emergency managers warned Wednesday that number could more than double as teams survey more neighborhoods.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was among the officials who took an aerial tour of Ruidoso and the surrounding area as they looked to bolster their case for more federal assistance for the community, which has been battered over the past year by wildfires and repeated flooding.
The governor said the state has received partial approval for a federal emergency declaration, freeing up personnel to help with search and rescue efforts and incident management. She called it the first step, saying Ruidoso will need much more.
"We will continue working with the federal government for every dollar and resource necessary to help this resilient community fully recover from these devastating floods,” she said.
An intense bout of monsoon rains set the disaster in motion Tuesday afternoon. Water rushed from the surrounding mountainside, overwhelming the Rio Ruidoso and taking with it a man and two children who had been camping at a riverside RV park. Their bodies were found downstream. All other people who went missing are now accounted for.
Lujan Grisham expressed condolences and wished a speedy recovery for the parents of a 4-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy who were killed. She said it will be an emotional journey.
“There are no words that can take away that devastation,” she said. “We are truly heartsick.”
Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, whose district includes Ruidoso and surrounding Lincoln County, told reporters more rain is coming and that residents remain at risk. She urged people to follow emergency orders, saying “we cannot lose another life.”
A community rebuilds — again
Broken tree limbs, twisted metal, crumpled cars and muddy debris remain as crews work to clear roads and culverts wrecked by the flooding.
Tracy Haragan, a lifelong Ruidoso resident on the verge of retirement, watched from his home as a surging river carried away the contents of nine nearby residences.
“You watched everything they owned, everything they had — everything went down,” he said.
A popular summer retreat, Ruidoso is no stranger to tragedy. It has spent a year rebuilding following destructive wildfires last summer and the flooding that followed.
This time, the floodwaters went even higher, with the Rio Ruidoso rising more than 20 feet (6 meters) on Tuesday to set a record. Officials said the area received about 3.5 inches (9 centimeters) of rain over the South Fork burn scar in just an hour and a half.
“It is such a great town, it just takes a tail-whipping every once in a while,” Haragan said. “We always survive.”
Sucked into the floodwaters
Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter were camping along a stream with their son Sebastian, 7, and daughter Charlotte, 4, when the campsite began to flood rapidly, the children’s uncle Hank Wyatt said on a verified GoFundMe page for the family.
Their RV was nearly halfway full of water when the wall cracked, and Stephanie and the children were sucked into the floodwaters, he said. The father dove into the water and tried to help his son climb up a tree, while the mother and daughter floated downstream, clinging to each other until debris hit and separated them.
Both children and two of the family’s dogs, Zeus and Ellie, died. The parents survived but were seriously injured.
The children were “two of the brightest, most joyful souls you could ever meet,” Wyatt said. “This is the worst day of our family’s lives.”
Other people barely escaped.
Arnold Duke, the owner of Ruidoso Trading Post, spent all day Wednesday digging for Native American jewelry in the mud after floodwaters rushed through a warehouse. Three workers fled, leaving cellphones and purses behind.
“If they had stayed another minute, I don’t know if they would have made it out,” Duke said.
Requests for aid
The Rio Ruidoso runs thick with sediment that can settle and raise water levels. Stansbury said the community would need help for the next decade after suffering successive catastrophes.
Lujan Grisham said the federal government likely will advance $15 million to jumpstart recovery efforts. That amount could climb to more than $100 million in the coming months as Ruidoso tries to rebuild and mitigate future floods.
After the 2024 flooding, Ruidoso deployed money from the state and U.S. Department of Agriculture to blunt the impact of flooding by removing river sediment, seeding new plants, installing grates to catch bridge-smashing debris and creating flood barriers out of baskets filled with rocks and earth to channel water away from structures.
Ruidoso Deputy Manager Michael Martinez said those improvements likely saved homes, bridges and lives. But funding was exhausted by early June, when the village requested another $12 million in federal support. Approval was still pending when Tuesday's flood hit.
“We would have desilted (more) portions of the river. Would that have made a difference?” Martinez said. “I think from a mitigation standpoint it might have helped a little bit, but ... the rains that we got were a 100-year-flood-level rain. It wasn’t just regular flash flooding.”
Additionally, Ruidoso and surrounding Lincoln County are advancing a proposal for federal support to convert flood-prone private land to public property, at an initial cost of over $100 million.
The governor said officials need to rethink how to spend funds to reduce the flood risk, and restore watersheds and forests. The mayor underscored that the flooding had damaged water lines and distribution points for potable drinking water.
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Bryan reported from Albuquerque. Associated Press writers Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City, Matthew Brown in Denver, Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque and Roberto E. Rosales in Ruidoso contributed.
Morgan Lee And Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press
