The New Mexico mountain village of Ruidoso, which was recently hit by wildfires, was hit by flash flooding from Tuesday into Thursday.
ABC News posted footage of the flooding in the village on Tuesday on its social media accounts, with the news outlet reporting that the footage showed “floodwaters rising and sweeping away buildings in Ruidoso.” (Related: Video shows brutal aftermath of first U.S. hurricane of 2024, reports say 8 dead)
Rains inundated villages affected by wildfires in New Mexico on Tuesday, and floodwaters were captured on video washing away buildings in Ruidoso, an area that also saw major flash flooding on Wednesday. https://t.co/juU4TfPPis pic.twitter.com/AJMJOm9Frj
— ABC News (@ABC) July 11, 2024
The video shows the collapsed roof of a house floating in a torrent of rainwater. Various pieces of debris are seen passing in front of the camera. “Oh my God, the house has collapsed,” a man shouts repeatedly in the driving rain. “That house has collapsed.”
The video then shows large bodies of water rushing past homes that are still intact.
“Please evacuate to higher ground. Dangerous conditions if downstream,” the village of Ruidoso tweeted on social media on Wednesday after the local National Weather Service issued a flood warning.
The National Weather Service in Albuquerque, New Mexico, issued a flood warning for the area until 4 PM Mountain Daylight Time. Get to higher ground. Conditions are dangerous if you're downstream.
Evacuate to higher ground immediately! pic.twitter.com/v43Q6HXrYn
— Village of Ruidoso (@VillageRuidoso) July 10, 2024
The village continued to provide residents with severe weather updates. “Due to rain and flooding expected today, FEMA will close the Disaster Recovery Center at 1pm. Normal operations will resume at 7am tomorrow,” the village tweeted Thursday.
Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 10:00 AM
Due to rain and flooding expected today, FEMA will close its Disaster Recovery Centers at 1:00 PM. Normal operations will resume tomorrow (Friday) at 7:00 AM. pic.twitter.com/GQ6jtMD6Rj
— Village of Ruidoso (@VillageRuidoso) July 11, 2024
The village also tweeted that various roads remain closed due to the weather.
Thursday, July 11, 2024 at 10:00 AM
The following roads remain closed:
* Haru's Paradise
* Paradise at Phillips Circle
* Country Club Paradise
* South 3 Main Road
* Sleepy Hollow pic.twitter.com/tdUGyO6zr3— Village of Ruidoso (@VillageRuidoso) July 11, 2024
The New Mexico village was hit by wildfire on July 17. Local authorities subsequently ordered the evacuation of its 7,000 residents. “Several buildings are at risk, [an] “An unknown number of structures were lost,” the New Mexico Forestry Department said in a statement. The village was hit by flash flooding on July 1-2.
