Evacuation orders from Garfield to Hatch were issued by Doña Ana county Tuesday night after large amounts of rain covered the area and a dam was close to failure.
First reports of trouble in the northern part of the county came in around 2:00pm when an emergency alert went out warning of a “life threatening situation" due to the "imminent failure” of the McLeod Dam in Garfield.
According to The National Inventory of Dams, the last inspection done in 2023 showed the McLeod Dam was in “poor” condition, had a high potential hazard classification and had no emergency action plan in place.
Due to this and the heavy rainfall in the area, Doña Ana County issued evacuation orders for Garfield and Salem. Later evacuation orders also came in for Rincon, Hatch and Placitas.
State representative Nathan Small was at one of the evacuation points at the Radium Springs Community Resource Center. He shared what he heard at that time.
“What we heard, sort of from reports, there is water coming over the top of some flood control facilities in that northern part of Doña Ana county. There is flooding in the village of Hatch and so folks are being asked to in specific areas and I think that everyone needs to be on a higher state of awareness and caution right now,” Small said.
Also present at the community center was The American Red Cross. At the time of the interview, around five to seven residents were there. American Red Cross Community Disaster Program Manager for Southern New Mexico Carina Gonzalez said that they would be there to help as long as they are needed.
“So this is a safe and warm place for them to stay overnight so obviously they will sleep in cots for the remaining time. We will have snacks, water, just a place to come and then from there we will see what other needs arise,” Gonzalez said.
