By SHERRY ROBINSON
All She Wrote
© 2025 New Mexico News Services
Exactly one day before the Rio Ruidoso swelled from 18 inches to 20 feet of death and destruction, Mayor Lynn Crawford told legislators that money they approved for disaster recovery is bottled up.
“The process is broke,” he said. “What you passed, we don’t have access to.”
The Village of Ruidoso is still rebuilding from last year’s fires and floods, reported Source New Mexico. Crawford told a July 7 meeting of the interim legislative Economic and Rural Development and Policy Committee that Ruidoso spent $16.8 million on repairs but ran out of money before finishing.
“Every dime that the village has had access to, that we could spend, we have deployed it,” Crawford said.
Rep. Harlan Vincent, R-Ruidoso Downs, said the Legislature will need to spend more on disaster recovery. “If this happens in your community, you’re going to go through it,” he said.
This year legislators allocated $44 million for disaster recovery, but they required FEMA approval before local governments could ask for it. So Ruidoso has requested only $4 million, Crawford said. The state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management told Crawford that his town is far down the priority list.
Even as the committee contemplated Ruidoso’s predicament, emergency warnings sounded. Just the day before, the racetrack flooded. Ruidoso Downs Racetrack General Manager Rick Baugh said: “We almost lost the track yesterday. I’m just at the end of my rope.”
The next day, July 8, rain on last year’s South Fork and Salt burn scars gathered into a 20-foot wall of water that tore through Ruidoso, carrying off vehicles, debris and even a house or two and requiring 63 swift-water rescues. A man and two children died. Damage to homes and infrastructure was extensive, and hundreds of people were displaced.
So Ruidoso wasn’t in great shape before the latest flood, and as it digs out, again, it’s beset with red tape and indifference.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham immediately asked the president for a disaster declaration, saying: “New Mexico is mobilizing every resource we have, but Ruidoso needs federal support to recover from this disaster. We’ve watched Texas receive the federal resources they desperately needed, and Ruidoso deserves that same urgent response.”
What she got was a partial approval for a federal emergency declaration, which covers search and rescue (which has ended) but doesn’t allow FEMA to open the federal government’s checkbook.
Next she reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said federal aid was on its way, including $12 million previously allocated, and, if the president fully approves a disaster declaration, maybe another $3 million. At a news conference July 10 the governor said she was “incredibly confident” that the president would grant full approval. At this writing that hasn’t happened.
The administration has been clear that it wants to shut down FEMA and shift disaster responsibility to the states. Lately, however, the national media report that the tragedies of the Texas floods have softened the discussion. In Texas Secretary Noem described an emotional visit to the girls’ camp where 27 kids and counselors died.
Let’s not forget that with midterm elections coming up, the president is mindful of support in Texas. Disasters shouldn’t be political – a flood or fire doesn’t know your political persuasion – but this year recovery is definitely political. Major media report that California fire victims, whose governor the president dislikes, are getting the federal cold shoulder, as the president warmly reassures Texans, whose governor is a fellow traveler.
In that vein, Lincoln County is leaving money on the table. Official Washington may only see a blue state and New Mexico’s Democrats in Congress, but in the last election Lincoln County voters supported the president by a wide margin – 68% to 30%. Residents should make that known with a letter-writing campaign to both the president and Noem. Their red county, they could point out, won’t get back on its feet without state AND federal help.