New Mexico deals with monsoon flooding statewide

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The rain in June and July has been the most New Mexico has seen since 2015, according to the National Weather Service. Some portions of the state are the wettest they’ve been in 130 years.

“We all, you know, are looking forward to the end of the monsoon season, which is a strange thing for a New Mexican to say, I realize,” said Collin Haffey, the forest and watershed health coordinator with the New Mexico Forestry Division.

The water has even shut down roadways across the state.

“Off of New Mexico 240 we had heavy rains that produced up to four feet deep water, and so some of those intersections were just completely closed off,” said Kimberly Gallegos with the New Mexico Department of Transportation.

NMDOT reportedly has 82 maintenance patrols statewide, responding to all the flood damage.

“They are working around the clock,” Gallegos said.

Then there’s the burn scar areas, especially for recent fires like the Cerro Pelado, Cooks Peak, McBride, Nogal, Black, Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak.

“The fires have fundamentally altered the way that our watersheds and valleys respond to rain events,” Haffey said. “So without the fires, even with this amount of rain, we wouldn’t expect to see this much flooding.”