Overview
- Rivers that rose rapidly this week peaked Friday, sending the San Juan and Animas rivers over their banks and triggering widespread evacuations in northwest New Mexico and southwestern Colorado.
- Rescue crews conducted dozens of helicopter and ground rescues, with law enforcement reporting at least 60 people saved between Farmington and Bloomfield and a family who waited about 12 hours on a rooftop before a state police helicopter reached them.
- Floodwaters inundated the Bloomfield Water Reclamation Facility and other treatment sites, releasing untreated wastewater into the San Juan River and prompting boil-or-conserve notices and warnings to avoid floodwater contact.
- About 58 New Mexico National Guardsmen including swift-water teams were deployed and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is preparing a federal Emergency Disaster Declaration as road, bridge and power outages keep many communities isolated.
- Officials warn more rain could raise rivers again, recovery will be prolonged because soils are saturated and heavy equipment cannot reach some sites, and the scale of damage may require federal aid and months of rebuilding.