At least three people, including two children, were killed in a wildfire-scarred village in southern New Mexico after torrential rain triggered raging flash flooding Tuesday, officials said.
The victims were swept away by what authorities described as “record-breaking” floodwater in the Village of Ruidoso in the Sierra Blanca mountain range, a popular summer retreat area.
The Rio Ruidoso, a mountain river in Lincoln County with headwaters near the Sierra Blanca Peak, swelled to an unprecedented 20.24 feet Tuesday. This reading is preliminary, but if validated, would shatter the old record of 15.86 feet set in July of 2024.
One of the victims, Benjamin “Timmy” Feagin, 64, was inside his RV at a local RV park when the vehicle was swept away by floodwater, his daughter-in-law Maria Pinon-Feagin told CNN. Feagin had recently retired and moved to Ruidoso to be closer to family and pursue his dream of being a cowboy, Pinon-Feagin said.
The children were part of a family from Fort Bliss, an army post in Texas and New Mexico, who were camping in the area, according to a Wednesday news release from the base. The soldier and their spouse were injured, but “the couple’s two young children, ages 7 and 4, were located and declared deceased by local emergency personnel after an extensive search and rescue operation,” the release stated. Ruidoso officials have not confirmed the children’s identity.
Three people were also taken to the hospital with injuries Tuesday and are in stable condition, Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said at a Wednesday news conference.
Emergency crews carried out at least 65 swift water rescues – a number revised down from an earlier estimate – in the Ruidoso area, including of people who were trapped in their homes and who had climbed up trees, Ruidoso Fire Chief Cade Hall told reporters.
Four people were reported missing earlier Wednesday, but all have since been contacted and cleared, a Ruidoso spokesperson told CNN.
The National Guard was positioned in the area ahead of time, including with aerial assets to help provide lighting and assist with search and rescue efforts, emergency manager Eric Queller said at the news conference.
At least 35 homes were damaged in the flooding, according to preliminary estimates, but the number could end up being more than 50, Queller said.
Videos shared on social media showed a house being swept away by flood waters and powerful river currents uplifting trees and leaving cars and motorcycles covered in mud.
The floods come on the heels of catastrophic flash floods in Texas where a death toll of more than 100 is still expected to rise, with dozens of people missing as of Wednesday morning.
New Mexico’s Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has declared a state of emergency in the area and asked for federal assistance.
“New Mexico is mobilizing every resource we have, but Ruidoso needs federal support to recover from this disaster. We’ve watched Texas receive the federal resources they desperately needed, and Ruidoso deserves that same urgent response,” she said on social media.
Officials in Ruidoso had urged residents to move to higher ground Tuesday afternoon as the Rio Ruidoso surged drastically from under 2 feet to over 20 feet in less than an hour.
The National Weather Service issued flood warnings and a flash flood emergency – the most severe form of flood warning – for the area as slow-moving thunderstorms brought torrential rain to the South Fork burn scar, an area affected by devastating wildfires last year that made it vulnerable to flooding.
The South Fork and Salt Fires of summer 2024 scorched more than 15,000 acres, destroyed 1,400 structures, and left the landscape stripped of vegetation, making the terrain highly susceptible to erosion and flash flooding.
Ever since, every downpour brings a renewed flood threat to disaster-weary Ruidoso and nearby Ruidoso Downs. The areas have been under at least 12 separate flash flood emergencies since June 2024. Some have resulted in massive debris flows and other flooding.
The quick switch from fire to floods is an example of what experts say is expected to happen more frequently as the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution: flip-flopping between weather extremes.
Rainfall events like the one that flooded Ruidoso this week are also intensifying as the climate warms. Nearly 90% of US cities experienced an increase in hourly rainfall rates since 1970, according to a 2024 analysis from Climate Central, a non-profit research group.
Kaitlyn Carpenter, a Ruidoso resident whose art studio was destroyed in flooding last year, told The Associated Press she had been riding her motorcycle through town on Tuesday afternoon when the storm intensified. Seeking shelter, she joined dozens of others at the riverside Downshift Brewing Company.
She began filming debris surging down the Rio Ruidoso when she spotted a house floating by that she recognized belonged to the family of one of her closest friends.
“I’ve been in that house and have memories in that house, so seeing it come down the river was just pretty heartbreaking,” Carpenter told the AP. “I just couldn’t believe it.” Her friend’s family was not in the house and is safe, she said.
CNN has reached out to the Ruidoso Police Department and New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for comment.
CNN’s Diego Mendoza, Taylor Galgano, Emma Tucker and Jeremy Grisham, and CNN Meteorologists Briana Waxman and Taylor Ward contributed to this report.
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