New Mexico counties seek aid after August floods wreak havoc

This story has been updated to correct a name that was misstated. The director of the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments is Priscilla Lucero. It was subsequently updated on Sept. 13 to include the governor's disaster declaration for Hidalgo County.

CLIFF – Heavy rainfall in New Mexico's southwest caused severe damage in the counties of Hidalgo, Catron, Grant and Sierra beginning around Aug. 19 for several days. As local officials seek federal aid local lawmakers pressed Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to act quickly on enacting aid for southwestern rural communities.

Eighteen of New Mexico's 33 counties saw heavy damage from monsoon storms and flooding, the affects of which were intensified in the wake of catastrophic wildfires in the north and southwest ― the Hermits Peak and Black fires, respectively.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's press secretary, Nora Sackett, said agencies were gathering data needed for federal disaster declarations throughout the state, including whether local damages meet required thresholds. Meanwhile, state Sens. Crystal Diamond, R-Elephant Butte, and Siah Correa Hemphill, D-Silver City, were helping to coordinate between counties and the state homeland security and emergency management department.

In the Gila Valley, stormwater overtook acequias, flooded farmlands and damaged county roads as well as part of U.S. 180 West, closing a vital bridge for a day and a half.

On Sept. 8, Lujan Grisham signed an emergency declaration for Grant County providing $750,000 via the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management toward emergency measures including repairs to infrastructure. This followed Grant County's declaration of a disaster on Aug. 23.

Hidalgo County commissioners formally declared a disaster on Aug. 23 as well, but it was not clear the state homeland security office received it promptly. The governor subsequently issued a similar emergency declaration for that county on Sept. 13.

One and perhaps two more declarations may follow in the coming days. Catron County commissioners approved their disaster declaration on Sept. 8. In Sierra County, flood director Travis Atwell said required data was still being gathered and that much of the damage appeared to be on deeded federal land.

On Sept. 8, a group of Gila Valley residents hosted a town hall at the Grant County Fairgrounds in Cliff where Grant County's new emergency manager, Justin Gojkovich, introduced himself. In the days following the flood, Autumn Bruton and other residents scrambled to assemble reliable information about different aid programs available and how to apply. Gojkovich explained that he had started on the job fairly recently and invited county residents to contact him directly.

Representatives from the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service spoke to residents about two different programs with rhyming abbreviations: The Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) which addresses crop destruction and other agricultural damage and the Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) which provides for emergency measures to protect life and property following a natural disaster, such as clearing debris carried by stormwaters from waterways, shoring up stream banks and other work.

Priscilla Lucero, director of the Southwest New Mexico Council of Governments, noted that local ditch associations or soil and water districts that had not submitted capital project requests to the Legislature had missed the regular deadline but were seeking special permission to submit infrastructure requests ahead of lawmakers' 2023 session, which starts in January.

Staff representatives for U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D) and U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell (R) spoke at the meeting, pressing residents to document damages caused by the storm and to be patient with processes that move public money slowly via the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other offices.

"I know the impact that it has for some of you," state Rep. Luis Terrazas, R-Santa Clara, who has toured damaged areas in Grant and Hidalgo counties, told approximately 70 people in attendance. "Some of you can't take care of watering your animals. Some of you may lose your crops and you may not have a second harvest or be able to sustain your farm, which is your livelihood and your business."

Four state lawmakers, three of whom are serving their first terms, have lobbied for their communities and helped move local disaster declarations through the proper channels.

Three Republican legislators from Grant, Hidalgo and Sierra counties ― Terrazas, Diamond and Rep. Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences ― called on the governor to treat the Black Fire and subsequent flooding as a single disaster, and to measure impacts regionally rather than by individual county. They are also seeking a waiver of required local matching funds.

Correa Hemphill praised the state Department of Transportation Friday for responding quickly to reopen the U.S. 180 West bridge. She also reported that staff from mining company Freeport McMoRan responded to the area to help with simple logistics, such as moving food and medical supplies around the bridge until the bridge reopened.

"Everybody's working around the clock," Correa Hemphill said. "We're all learning this process and we want to be as accurate and efficient as possible, to support these rural communities as quickly as we can; but we also have to make sure that we're doing things correctly and we're being responsible in our efforts, too, because of the level of disasters across New Mexico and the limited capacity."

Communities dependent on the Gila River could be in for a long recovery. At Thursday's meeting, Grant County rancher Dave Ogilvie said three diversion systems in the valley were so badly damaged they might take weeks or months to be operational again, and at enormous cost.

"It's not just ranches and farms," he said. "There are people here that go to the farmers markets, supply vegetables and have business associated with that. There are people that have bed and breakfasts — their livelihood is selling the visual component of the river, and they received damage. This is a big community that has always existed around the river here. We all love it here … When something like this happens, it's very difficult to get your arms around it."

Algernon D'Ammassa can be reached at 575-541-5451, adammassa@lcsun-news.com or @AlgernonWrites on Twitter.