On Tuesday, heavy rainfalls triggered flash floods in New Mexico, which claimed the lives of 3, including two young children, according to state emergency services. It also trapped dozens of residents in their homes and cars in the resort village of Ruidoso.
According to the mountain resort village, the children, aged four and seven, were both swept downstream along with a man, who was later discovered dead, adding that rescue operations were underway.
A dramatic video on social media and various news outlets showed a whole house, ripped from its foundations, careening downstream through the brown, muddy waters of the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso, side-swiping trees as it went.
Spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Danielle Silva, said, “I’ve seen the video. We don’t know if anyone was in the house.”
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He added that emergency teams organised by local law enforcement and the National Guard conducted at least 85 swift-water rescues in and around Ruidoso, many of them people stranded in cars and homes by elevated floodwaters.
Silva also said the river had quickly risen by a provisional record of 20.24 feet (6.2 meters) at the peak of the flood, and as waters began to recede in the evening, authorities began searching for survivors in the debris.
The latest floods come just four days after a deadly flash flood triggered by heavy rains along the Guadalupe River killed at least 109 people and left scores missing after ravaging a swath of Texas Hill Country.
In New Mexico, Silva said the severity of the debris flow was heightened by a flame-scarred landscape stripped of vegetation in a wildfire, which was then followed by flooding that eroded the soil.
