Flash flooding in New Mexico resort town traps dozens in homes and vehicles

Flash flooding triggered by heavy monsoon rains in New Mexico trapped dozens of people in homes and vehicles in and around the mountain resort village of Ruidoso on Tuesday and swept away an entire house, according to a state emergency official said.

Dramatic video footage on social media and various news outlets showed the house, ripped from its foundations, careening downstream through the brown, muddy waters of the flood-engorged Rio Ruidoso, side-swiping trees as it went.

“I’ve seen the video. We don’t know if anyone was in the house,” said Danielle Silva, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

There were no immediate confirmed reports of deaths or injuries from Tuesday’s flooding.

But emergency teams pre-positioned by local law enforcement and the National Guard conducted at least 85 swift-water rescues in and around Ruidoso, many of victims who were stranded in their cars and homes by flooding, Silva said.

Silva said the river had quickly risen by a provisional record of 20.24 feet (6.2 metres) at the peak of the late-afternoon flood, and as floodwaters began to recede in the evening, authorities were starting to search through debris looking for any survivors.

She said the severity of the debris flow was heightened by a flame-scarred landscape stripped of vegetation in a wildfire that burned through the area last June, followed soon after by a round of flooding that badly eroded the soil.

Ruidoso is a popular summer retreat and ski resort nestled in the Sierra Blanca mountain range of south-central New Mexico about 115 miles (185 km) south of Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

The latest flooding there occurred four days after a deadly flash flood triggered by torrential rains along the Guadalupe River ravaged a swath of Texas Hill Country, killing at least 109 people and leaving scores of others missing.