Floodwaters rising all over the past few weeks

Noah had lots of warning and detailed instructions from the highest authority on how to prepare for the Great Flood. Folks in New Mexico and Texas recently haven’t been so blessed.

The scenes of flooding in Ruidoso caused by heavy rains on the recent burn scar are looking a might Biblical and heartbreaking to residents of that fair community. The rains came so quickly after the fires swept through that folks were unprepared even though they probably knew it was coming at some point.

I haven’t been in Ruidoso since the fires, but I was working in the Glenwood Springs area when the South Canyon Fire swept across Storm King Mountain above that city. I remember how in pretty short order flood and erosion control measures were put into place. They never had as serious a flash-flooding event after that fire and the rains they did have were managed well by the work they had done.

The South Fork fire on the other hand didn’t give the community much of a chance to get prepared for the inevitable. Almost before the evacuations were lifted and the workers had a chance to get a good shower and night’s rest the rains hit.

I think the community was aware of what could happen because they got to see it just outside the community after the Little Bear Fire but the volume of water coming down the Rio Ruidoso in town and then eventually watching U.S. 70 turned into a river was shocking and heart-rending.

Another flooding event this past week distracted me a bit from Ruidoso’s woes as Hurricane Beryl came onshore across Matagorda Bay. For two years I lived in the largest community, Bay City, near where it made landfall.

I watched livestreams from famous storm chaser Reed Timmer as the eye wall of the hurricane neared the beach community of Sargent, about 20 miles from where we had lived. I had watched another group of storm chasers contemplate riding out the storm on Matagorda Beach, where my wife and I spent one of our last nights in Texas. Fortunately they talked themselves out of it.

Timmer and crew did ride out the storm in their vehicle near the beach but the storm surge got serious enough that I bet he takes a beating on that rental car deposit. The reverse surge they experienced with water coming out of the bay was really impressive for a Category 1 storm.

We planned extensively for hurricanes at the daily newspaper I published in Bay City. Fortunately I never had to activate that plan. Bay City took an almost direct hit and had a rough time but not as rough as it would have been had the storm strengthened to a Cat. 4 or 5. It had always been hard to understand how that 20 miles barren land between Bay City and the Gulf could be flooded by storm surge but lowly Beryl did a pretty good job of it.

We even had a swift water rescue that made national news right here in Portales a few years ago on 18th Street when a mother and her children were swept down the drainage canal in their car.

Swift water, no matter where you encounter it, needs to be respected. At times it only takes a few inches to sweep a person off their feet or even wash away a car. I like the slogan used over the last few years. “Turn Around, Don’t Drown.”

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

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