As many as 200 homes damaged as officials survey the aftermath of a deadly New Mexico flood

SANTA FE N M AP At least homes were damaged during a deadly flash flood in the mountain village of Ruidoso and local crisis managers warned Wednesday that number could more than double as teams survey more neighborhoods Gov Michelle Lujan Grisham was among the personnel who took an aerial tour of Ruidoso and the surrounding area as they looked to bolster their occurrence for more federal assistance for the neighborhood which has been battered over the past year by wildfires and repeated flooding The governor noted the state has received partial approval for a federal crisis declaration freeing up personnel to help with search and rescue efforts and happening management She called it the first step saying Ruidoso will need much more We will continue working with the federal regime for every dollar and pool necessary to help this resilient society fully recover from these devastating floods she mentioned An intense bout of monsoon rains set the tragedy in motion Tuesday afternoon Water rushed from the surrounding mountainside overwhelming the Rio Ruidoso and taking with it a man and two children who had been camping at a riverside RV park Their bodies were detected downstream One person is still unaccounted for Lujan Grisham expressed her condolences and wished a speedy recovery for the parents of the -year-old girl and -year-old boy who were killed She declared it will be an emotional journey There are no words that can take away that devastation she noted We are truly heartsick Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury whose district includes Ruidoso and surrounding Lincoln County advised reporters more rain is coming and that residents remain at menace She urged people to follow crisis orders saying we cannot lose another life A population rebuilds again Broken tree limbs twisted metal crumpled cars and muddy debris remain as crews work to clear roads and culverts wrecked by the flooding Tracy Haragan a lifelong Ruidoso resident on the verge of retirement watched from his home as a surging river carried away the contents of nine nearby residences You watched everything they owned everything they had everything went down he disclosed A popular summer retreat Ruidoso is no stranger to tragedy It has spent a year rebuilding following destructive wildfires last summer and the flooding that followed This time the floodwaters went even higher with the Rio Ruidoso rising more than feet meters on Tuesday to set a record Functionaries commented the area received about inches centimeters of rain over the South Fork burn scar in just an hour and a half It is such a great town it just takes a tail-whipping every once in a while Haragan stated We inevitably survive Sucked into the floodwaters Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter were camping along a stream with their son Sebastian and daughter Charlotte when the campsite began to flood rapidly the children s uncle Hank Wyatt commented on a verified GoFundMe page for the family Their RV was nearly halfway full of water when the wall cracked and Stephanie and the children were sucked into the floodwaters he mentioned The father dove into the water and tried to help his son climb up a tree while the mother and daughter floated downstream clinging to each other until debris hit and separated them Both children and two of the family s dogs Zeus and Ellie died The parents survived but were seriously injured The children were two of the brightest the majority joyful souls you could ever meet Wyatt explained This is the worst day of our family s lives Other people barely escaped Arnold Duke the owner of Ruidoso Trading Post spent all day Wednesday digging for Native American jewelry in the mud after floodwaters rushed through a warehouse Three workers fled leaving cellphones and purses behind If they had stayed another minute I don t know if they would have made it out Duke commented Requests for aid The Rio Ruidoso runs thick with sediment that can settle and raise water levels Stansbury commented the region would need help for the next decade after suffering successive catastrophes Lujan Grisham stated the federal regime likely will advance million to jumpstart recovery efforts That amount could climb to more than million in the coming months as Ruidoso tries to rebuild and mitigate future floods After the flooding Ruidoso deployed money from the state and U S Department of Agriculture to blunt the impact of flooding by removing river sediment seeding new plants installing grates to catch bridge-smashing debris and creating flood fences out of baskets filled with rocks and earth to channel water away from structures Ruidoso Deputy Manager Michael Martinez stated those improvements likely saved homes bridges and lives But funding was exhausted by early June when the village requested another million in federal aid Approval was still pending when Tuesday s flood hit We would have desilted more portions of the river Would that have made a difference Martinez noted I think from a mitigation standpoint it might have helped a little bit but the rains that we got were a -year-flood-level rain It wasn t just regular flash flooding Additionally Ruidoso and surrounding Lincoln County are advancing a proposal for federal encouragement to convert flood-prone private land to citizens property at an initial cost of over million The governor revealed authorities need to rethink how to spend funds to reduce the flood threat and restore watersheds and forests The mayor underscored that the flooding had damaged water lines and distribution points for potable drinking water Bryan from Albuquerque Associated Press writers Matthew Brown in Denver Christopher L Keller in Albuquerque and Roberto E Rosales in Ruidoso contributed Source