The smell of soot enveloped Ruidoso as residents began picking up the pieces of their lives that were upended when the South Fork and Salt Wildfires threatened their homes and livelihoods.
In Ruidoso there’s still a large law enforcement presence, from local, to state, and even federal officials. And even so, business owners are opening up, just trying to assess the damage to figure out where they stand, and see what the future holds for them.
Michael Jones sat on the patio of his downtown business, watching as cars and heavy machinery made their way up and down Sudderth Drive. Jones, who owns the Picture This art gallery, has been a resident of the town for 40 years. He opted to stay in town as the wildfires tore through the forest.
“I stayed behind to help where I could, just like a lot of other people did,” he said. “I went and checked on their homes, received lots of phone calls about going to check on businesses, go check on their homes, and that’s what I did. The people who did evacuate were concerned about their property. If I felt like I was in danger I would have evacuated.”
Jones said he’s happy to see businesses reopening, and believes that the town will bounce back and support victims of the fire amid all the destruction.
“It’s hard to give a message to anybody who feel they’ve lost everything. Hope is the only thing that I can tell them,” he said. “They have to believe in the people of this town, that we will help them, our residents will help them. That’s what we’re about here. I’ve lived here 40 years, and trust me, this town is full of good people.”
At the Win Place & Show Bar down the street, manager Misty Thetford opened up for the first time since she and her family evacuated, offering a safe-haven for residents.
“I think we’re all just trying to get some [normality] back in our lives. It’s a scary situation, we’ve dealt with wildfires. I’ve been in Ruidoso since I was 10 and experienced several. But never this close,” she said. “People that have been able to come back to town, they need somewhere to go. Win Place & Show has always been kind of a family place. We don’t think of our people as customers, they’re our family and we’re theirs. We have some people that we’re their only family. They need somewhere to go, so I’m going to be here today to make sure they have that place.”
Thetford said the road to recovery will be difficult, but she’s in support of welcoming guests back in, even as much of the town’s infrastructure is still in shambles.
“We just want to get back to doing what we do, giving people a place to go, have a good time [and] relax,” she said. “I know there’s mixed reviews on the racetrack opening back up. I’m 100% in support of that. We have to keep going, we have to keep moving forward. We can’t be at a standstill. And Ruidoso has to do what Ruidoso does, and that’s race horses.”
Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said he’s happy to see businesses in the town reopening so quickly, but wants tourists to be aware that the town isn’t fully operational.
“I’m all in favor of businesses getting back to business. These people cannot afford to be out of work. The employers cannot afford to not have them. So I’m excited that we’re getting back. There’s no place for those [tourists] to stay right now, so the people coming in for the races will have to leave after the races.”
Mayor Crawford said that the village is collaborating with state and federal officials to ensure residents who have lost property have a place to stay.
“We’re making sure that we secure funding and that we’re able to get the appropriations that we need so that our community can come back,” he said. “So many of our businesses are damaged now, and we want to make sure that the employees that don’t have homes, that we’re able to give them something to live in so that we don’t lose them permanently.”
According to village officials, residents who are in need of shelter can find it at White Mountain Relief Center at 687 Hull Road, where Red Cross and FEMA officials will be available for assistance. John Rabin, the assistant administrator for response at FEMA, said that his agency would identify and meet the needs of victims that local and state officials may not be able to.
“We're going to work closely with the state and with the village to ensure that there are other types of assistance that we need, whether it's housing assistance, whether it's financial assistance, to be able to make sure that we are going to be able to bring the residents who are impacted by this the assistance they need to help clean up and recover from this disaster.”
And while many in the village are eager to open back up, Rabin said it’s important to stay aware of potential developments in the disaster response.
“The threat is not over yet. We've got rain coming in the next couple of days that is potentially going to cause flash floods. So we need to make sure that everybody is listening to the local officials,” he said. “The local officials are going to be focused predominantly on the safety of fellow citizens and the residents here. And we need to make sure as the weather comes in, and as the fires continue to be contained, that the local community is listening to their local officials. They have the best information, and they're the ones that are really looking out for the safety of all the folks out there.”
In the face of devastation, Ruidoso residents are working on the long road to recovery, and as the businesses take their first steps towards welcoming back tourists, hope remains that the town can build back to become a thriving tourist destination once again.
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