- Title: Campground manager recalls "panic" to evacuate from flash flooding in New Mexico
- Date: 20th June 2024
- Summary: RUIDOSO DOWNS, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES (JUNE 20, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BOBBY SMITH WALKING INTO LAUNDRY AT RIVER RANCH RV PARK WHICH WAS HIT BY FLASh FLOODING FOOTSTEPS IN MUD BEEF JERKY BAG ON MUD (SOUNDBITE) (English) BOBBY SMITH, 70, MANAGER AT RIVER RANCH RV PARK, SAYING: "Panic.Trying to help everybody get out that I knew who was here and the emergency people,
- Embargoed: 5th July 2024 00:45
- Keywords: FLOOD NEW MEXICO WILDFIRE
- Location: RUIDOSO DOWNS, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- City: RUIDOSO DOWNS, NEW MEXICO, UNITED STATES
- Country: US
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,North America,Wildfires/Forest Fires
- Reuters ID: LVA001253320062024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Residents at the River Ranch Recreational Vehicle Park in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, were mopping up and assessing the damage on Thursday (June 20) after heavy rain triggered flash floods shortly after a wildfire swept through the area.
Bobby Smith, 70, park manager, described the panic as emergency personnel alerted campers about evacuations.
“They were screaming, 'Just get out, don't wait on nothing.’” Smith recounted.
Mark Robert from Tomball, Texas, spends his summers in New Mexico to escape the Texas heat and humidity. He recounted the sudden rise of the water. "Heavy rainfall, hail was about the size of quarters, and I just saw the river coming up and coming up," Robert said.
Patrick Hernández from the New Mexico Department of Transportation explained that burn scars from previous fires amplified the flood risk. "This is what is expected in the years to come with the fire that just happened on the upper part of Ruidoso," Hernández said.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham told reporters around 500 homes were thought to be among the more than 1,400 buildings razed by the two blazes, making it one of the most destructive wildfires in state history.
New Mexico is caught in a decades-long drought that has made wildfires more destructive and faster moving.
In 2022 the state suffered the largest blaze in the continental United States which burned over 341,000 acres (138,000 hectares).
(Production: Adrees Latif, Liliana Salgado) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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