July 2024

Eastern New Mexico News CLOVIS — Noah had lots of warning and detailed instructions from the highest authority on how to prepare for the Great Flood. Folks in New Mexico and Texas recently haven’t been so blessed. The scenes of flooding in Ruidoso caused by heavy rains on the recent burn scar are looking a might Biblical and heartbreaking to residents of that fair community. The rains came so quickly after the fires swept through that folks were unprepared even though they probably knew it was coming at some point. I haven’t been in Ruidoso since the fires, but I was working in the Glenwood Springs area when the South Canyon Fire swept across Storm King Mountain above that city. I remember how in pretty short order, flood and erosion control measures were put into place. They never had as serious a flash-flooding event after that fire and the rains they did have were managed well by the work they had done. The South Fork fire on the other hand didn’t give the community much of a chance to get prepared for the inevitable. Almost before the evacuations were lifted and the workers had a chance to get a good shower and night’s rest the rains hit. I think the community was aware of what could happen because they got to see it just outside the community after the Little Bear Fire but the volume of water coming down the Rio Ruidoso in town and then eventually watching U.S. 70 turned into a river was shocking and heart-rending. Another flooding event this past week distracted me a bit from Ruidoso’s woes as Hurricane Beryl came onshore across Matagorda Bay. For two years I lived in the largest community, Bay City, near where it made landfall.