New Mexico heavy rain and flash flooding prompt mandatory evacuations – Associated Press
Heavy rain and flash flood warnings in New Mexico prompted officials to order some mandatory evacuations, with shelters set up for displaced residents.
The National Weather Service office announced a flash flood emergency on Friday night through early Saturday. The impacted areas included the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico and communities near Albuquerque.
Up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain had fallen by late Friday with additional rainfall up to 1.5 inches (3.8 centimeters) expected overnight, the weather service said.
There was flash flooding with multiple road closures on the north and west sides of Las Vegas, the weather service said.
The Las Vegas municipal government announced mandatory evacuations of parts of the city in social media posts, warning residents to prepare for overnight stays. The city said it established shelters for residents on the west and east sides of the city.
The city government asked residents to limit non-essential water use, while also clarifying that online rumors suggesting the city's water dams had broken were false and that the dams "are currently intact."
New Mexico also suffered devastating wildfires this week that killed at least two people and forced thousands to flee from the flames. The South Fork and Salt fires in south-central New Mexico destroyed or damaged an estimated 1,400 structures. FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham planned to tour the disaster area Saturday.
Escape from killer New Mexico wildfire was 'absolute sheer terror,' says woman who fled the flames - By Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press
Belinda Bukovitz was jolted into action by the sound of police outside her home shouting through a loudspeaker: "Go now, go now, go now!" Realizing this was not like other wildfires that had threatened her mountain village before, she, her husband, son and two cats bundled into three separate cars and fled.
The smoke was at the end of the street when they tore out of the driveway. Panic set in as the usually sleepy two-lane streets of Ruidoso became gridlocked, with cars inching along bumper to bumper, sometimes taking as long as an hour to go a single mile. As they crept forward, smoke from one fire was ahead and smoke from another behind. Bukovitz had no idea where the flames were.
"It was absolute sheer terror, like I thought we were going to die," she said, voice cracking. "I remember at one point thinking, the river's over to my right, and I thought my son was about probably five cars behind me. I thought I will get out and go get him, and I will just get in that water. I don't know if that would help, but that was my plan because I just I didn't know how fast it was coming."
The South Fork and Salt fires that raged in south-central New Mexico this week prompted thousands of people like Bukovitz to flee for their lives and destroyed or damaged an estimated 1,400 structures — about half of them homes, according to Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford.
Officials were still taking stock on Friday as firefighters took advantage of rain and cool temperatures to keep the blazes from growing, but large swaths of some neighborhoods were lost. At least two people died.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham were to tour the disaster area Saturday. A federal disaster declaration has cleared the way for more resources to help start recovery as crews continue to corral the flames.
Some residents smelled smoke when they woke up Monday and poured their first cup of coffee. They didn't think much of it, assuming the source had to be far off. Some went to work, others walked their dogs.
A few miles away, an elite team of firefighters dubbed the Smokey Bear Hot Shots were on the scene, and a large air tanker and helicopter were ordered to drop water and slurry on flames, which at the time covered just a few acres. But as fire behavior experts would later explain, there was nothing that was going to slow this down — it had been too hot and too dry in the months leading up to this day.
Within a few short hours, the majestic views of Sierra Blanca Peak were blotted out as huge plumes of smoke rose from the forested hills. The sun disappeared, the sky turned orange and flames became visible from vantage points around Ruidoso.
Authorities ordered the first residents in the canyons on the outskirts to leave around midday. Others began packing their belongings as conditions worsened.
Then, around dinnertime, the order came via social media for the entire village of about 8,000, plus the many tourists who visit in summer, to head out: "Immediate mandatory 'Go' evacuation for the village of Ruidoso — Go now!!"
Pam Bonner was among those to leave early in the day, only to find herself in a line of vehicles that stretched for about a mile. She could see other cars stacking up behind as the glowing horizon became more intense.
"This was unlike anything. The sky was black and orange, and the clouds were like mushroom clouds," she said. "It was just like a horror movie. It really was."
With flames and smoke forcing road closures, there were limited options for getting out. Power had been turned off as a precaution, and communication became a challenge as cell service dropped out. Vehicles were funneled toward evacuation shelters in Roswell, Alamogordo and elsewhere.
Patrick Pearson, who recently had surgery after breaking his leg, was waiting at the Swiss Chalet Inn for a friend to pick him up. Others fleeing their homes asked if he needed a ride, but he thought his friend would arrive and remained — unaware that she had been stopped at numerous roadblocks and was unable to call to let him know. At a final checkpoint, the friend asked people to go get Pearson, but the smoke was too thick by then.
Authorities found Pearson's body Tuesday in the inn's parking lot, where his family believes he collapsed after being overcome by smoke. Some of his belongings were at the front entrance. Just a day earlier, Pearson's children had wished him a happy Father's Day and told him they loved him, his daughter Hilary Mallak said.
A talented musician and good cook, the 60-year-old Pearson loved Ruidoso and loved making people happy, Mallak said.
"Really what's so heartbreaking about it is knowing, thinking that your family member burned to death alone," she said. "But luckily I think he was already gone with just the smoke. So it was quick."
Authorities also found the unidentified skeletal remains of one other person inside a charred car.
The wildfires were fueled by the exceedingly dry and hot conditions that have been present in much of the Southwest in recent months, and exacerbated by strong winds that whipped the flames out of control and into Ruidoso.
Tom Bird, a forecaster with the National Weather Service who was assigned to the fire, said this area of New Mexico has received between a quarter and half the average precipitation it usually gets and this marks the peak of fire season in the Sacramento Mountains.
"You can see with great frequency there's a lot of hot, dry, windy days leading up to right here, this really high peak," he said, pointing to a chart showing unfavorable conditions on the day the fires started.
"In fact, it was the worst that we've seen over the last month," Bird said.
Nationwide, the total square mileage of terrain that has been burned so far this year is much greater than the 10-year average, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. There are more than two dozen large fires currently burning in 10 states, from Alaska to Florida.
In Ruidoso, it could take until next week before authorities begin letting people return home. That's because some firefighting crews have been working their way through neighborhoods to address any pockets of unburned fuel that might flare up.
Mary Ann Russ is taking it one day at a time, creating a small list each day of things she needs to get done now that she and her husband lost their home of 24 years.
They were out of town the day the fires broke out. Her father-in-law evacuated with the help of neighbors, but all their belongings are gone. Prescription medications. Clothing. Russ' car. The flag from her mother's military funeral. Her father's Army keepsakes. Her son's baby pictures.
"You know, I'll just never have them back, that's all," she said. "And it's heavy, man. It's heavy."
For now Russ and her neighbors are staying in Roswell, about 75 miles away. Until they can return, they will be sharing dinners and leaning on each other.
"We just got to keep putting one foot in front of the other," she said.
Cooler temps and rain over weekend mean ‘minimal fire activity’ for teams battling NM fires - by Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
Despite the havoc it caused this week, the huge rainstorm that fell Wednesday over Ruidoso has ushered in a short period of “minimal fire activity” on the Salt and South Fork fires, according to the latest update from teams responding to the fires.
The South Fork Fire has grown to 16,614 acres, or about 26 square miles, an increase of a few hundred acres since June 18 at 2 p.m., according to the National Interagency Fire Center on Friday.
The Salt Fire a few miles south of the South Fork Fire reached 7,652 acres as of June 20 at 6 a.m. That’s about 12 square miles. On Thursday, it was 7,081 acres, according to an update from the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.
The two have prompted the evacuations of about 9,000 people in total, according to fire team summaries. Two people have died, and 1,400 structures have been damaged or destroyed, according to the latest estimates.
Public records and lightning data shed new light on Salt and South Fork fire origins
Both fires are 0% contained.
At a community briefing Thursday night, fire behavior specialist Arthur Gonzales said teams expect “very little spread” over the next few days because of the increased humidity, cloud cover and moisture that the rains brought.
“We still have the hazards out there with fire, and still got a lot of work to do, but it’s really changed that fire behavior,” he said. “And we expect that over the next two to three days.”
More than 1,000 firefighters are in the area trying to contain the deadly blazes.
Incident Commander Dave Gesser told the community meeting that he expects fire containment to increase over the next few days, though he said the topography of the area makes establishing a perimeter difficult.
Fire officials said they expect the reprieve granted by rain and cool temperatures to lift early next week. But it will take a few additional days for the area to dry out enough for the fires to resume their destructive behavior, according to forecasts in reports produced by the fire teams.
'It’s devastating' says family of Patrick Pearson killed in South Fork Fire in Ruidoso – By Adrian Hedden, El Rito Media, Diana Alba Soular, Southern New Mexico Journalism Collaborative
Patrick Pearson played bass and sang ‘90s cover songs, along with country and Spanish music three or four times a week at local bar Quarters in Ruidoso.
He was known to cook up a pot of taco soup for his friends, of which he made many since moving to Ruidoso full-time in 2021 to play a gig.
He died probably in the evening of June 17 or the next morning as the South Fork and Salt fire ripped through the popular tourist village amid the Sacramento Mountains and Lincoln National Forest, but Pearson’s body wasn’t found until the next day as fire crews sifted through ashes of the decimated hotel.
Pearson, 60, was a private kind of person, but made friends wherever he went, said his 36-year-old daughter Hilary Mallak. His move following a divorce in 2008 from Albuquerque to Ruidoso saw Pearson staying in the historic Swiss Chalet Inn.
“It’s devastating,” Mallak said in an interview with the Ruidoso News. “People spend their whole lives there. People retire there. That’s what my dad was doing. He said he’d spend his entire life there.”
Pearson's son and Mallak's little brother Zach Pearson, 33, of Santa Rosa said he spoke to his dad last on Father's Day, and tried to reach him Monday with no success. The family also called shelters set up in the region, mostly in Roswell, for word of their father.
"I was kind of hoping everything was okay and he didn't have (phone) service. Come Tuesday, we still hadn't heard from him," Zach Pearson said. "Nobody had seen him. We really didn't have much information to go off."
The South Fork Fire burned about 16,335 acres in the Ruidoso area as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the New Mexico Forestry Division, leading to a full evacuation ordered for all residents on Monday. The nearby Salt Fire burned another 7,071 acres south of the village simultaneously, and Ruidoso Downs was also evacuated the next day.
By the most recent estimates, 1,400 structures were lost in the wake of the fires.
Family forced to wait as fires shut down Ruidoso
One of the structures lost was the Swiss Chalet, built in 1962 and nestled among the picturesque mountain vistas that were covered by a thick blanket of smoke as Ruidoso residents fled their homes during the fires.
It’s where Pearson was living when the fires crept at first into town, then exploded, tripling in size over Monday night. He was still healing from a recent out of town surgery after breaking his leg and returning to the Chalet on June 10.
Pearson had arranged a ride out of town with friends, but it was too late as that vehicle was denied entry to Ruidoso as the highways were shut down.
So, he appeared to set out on foot, Mallak said, using a walker. Eventually, she said the smoke appeared to become too much for Pearson. He was found curled up in a fetal position in the hotel’s parking lot.
"I know he was in pain already with his leg being broken," Zach Pearson said. "Being in a walker trying to escape all that couldn't have been easy. I just hope he didn't suffer for so long."
While the fires were overtaking the village, Mallak followed the story on TV some 300 miles away in Albuquerque where she lived her entire life. She said while it was sad to see the forest burning, she didn’t expect tragedy to strike her family.
She heard later that Pearson had last spoke to a friend at about 4 p.m., June 16, saying he had a bag packed and was ready to leave Ruidoso.
“That’s the last anyone had heard from him,” Mallak said. “You don’t think it’s that bad, especially being far away. I was watching it on the news and I did try to get ahold of him. By then, the cell towers were out but we didn’t know that. We didn’t really get any updates from him.”
The family was forced to wait for word from Pearson. Mallak said her father returned their calls during previous wildfires in Ruidoso, most recently when the McBride Fire burned about 6,159 acres and led to the evacuation of 4,500 residents in April 2022.
An elderly couple was found dead among the rubble of the McBride.
“We were hopeful for the majority of the day, until we heard people were hearing from their loved ones, and we hadn’t heard anything,” Mallak said.
Zach Pearson said he called New Mexico State Police dispatch, provided a few more identifying details and was face to face with a State Police officer soon after, receiving news he hoped he wouldn't.
"I had a state police officer come to my door and he said my dad was gone. He didn't make it. I was in disbelief. It's the biggest shock of my life," Zach Pearson said. "I don't have my dad anymore."
A father, grandfather, musician and cook
Mallak’s daughter Harlynn was born on July 29, 2023 and she said Pearson was looking forward to being a grandfather. He had several custom items made to welcome Harlynn into the world, Mallak said, as the girl joined her two teenage sons.
“He was very excited about that,” Mallak said. “They all knew I wanted a daughter at some point.”
She said she spoke to him about weekly since he moved from Albuquerque for that first gig in Ruidoso about three years ago, and to escape the big city for scenic mountain vistas.
“What took him to Ruidoso was he always wanted to get out of Albuquerque,” Mallak said. “He got a gig in 2021 and fell in love with it. He never came back.”
In Ruidoso, Pearson played in a band with Craig Rivera. Rivera's daughter Christiana Alvarez of Oceanside, California said the bond between her dad and Pearson since they were teenagers meant he was "like and uncle" to her. She said she talked with Pearson frequently, especially for counsel when her son died at a young age.
"My dad told me he never saw Pat mad in all the years he's known Pat. He's always been that person − my dad was the one sticking up for him," Alvarez said. "He (Pat) was funny. he had a humor. But the one thing was: he was simply just kind."
She recalled a kind man, always excited to perform and have a good time.
"It was really nice because every time I'd go listen to them (at Quarters), there was always people dancing," Alvarez said. "It was people in their early 20s to couples in their 60s and 70s. It was a mixture, and it wasn't just about alcohol. It was about the music.
Before his passion of music drew him to the mountains, Mallak said Pearson was strong father, who attended many of her and her sister Samantha Garcia’s dance and cheerleading events.
She also remembered her dad as the family cook, known for his “taco soup” he’d frequently prepare for friends he met through music and “simpler Southern food” he’d prepare for the family.
“We loved to go see him play,” she said. “He was the main cook. That’s what I remember. He like to make people happy.”
Garcia, 31, of Albuquerque said she remembered a father born to perform. He sang during her first dance with husband Leon Garcia on their wedding day.
“My dad had such a gift and passion for singing and entertaining. He played the bass guitar and made lifelong friends doing what he loved,” she said. “I have many fond memories of going to his gigs and dancing to him singing. He actually sang to my husband and I during our first dance at my wedding. He was well loved and will be greatly missed.”
Zach Pearson said it was his dream to join his dad on stage. That's why he took up the guitar. After his father's passing, Zach still has recordings he said bring back the cherished memories of following his parents to county fairs, festivals and other event to hear his dad's deep, country-tinged voice reminiscent of George Strait.
"He was an amazing musician. He made a part-time career out of it for most of his life," Zach Pearson said. "He'd go all over and play, and everybody loved his music. There's nobody that didn't fall in love with my dad's singing voice."
That voice was silenced by the South Fork Fire.
Fire crews continued working to control the blaze in the days after Pearson’s death, hoping to bring an end to the chaos gripping the village, and prevent any more tragedies from hurting families like his.
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 734-972-6855, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on the social media platform X.