Residents Told to Flee as Dam Nears Collapse

Doña Ana County, New Mexico, told residents of five Hatch Valley communities to evacuate on Sept. 29 after dam operators and county officials reported the imminent failure of McLeod Dam. The National Weather Service said the report came in at 1:47 p.m.

By late Tuesday night the county had lifted the orders for Salem, Garfield, Hatch and Placitas. As of 11 p.m., only Rincon remained under an evacuation notice, the county said, "due to the dangers of standing floodwaters."

The first Flash Flood Emergency, in effect until 4:45 p.m. MDT, warned of life-threatening flash flooding in rural areas between Garfield and Salem, including portions of Highways 187 and 390, along with areas near the Garfield Drain, the Garfield Canal and other drainage and irrigation ditches. The weather service called the situation "particularly dangerous" and told anyone in low-lying areas below the dam to move to higher ground immediately.

A 1953 earthen dam already rated in poor condition

McLeod Dam sits on the McLeod Arroyo roughly 40 miles northwest of Las Cruces, in farm country locals know better by another name: the Garfield dam. It was built in 1953, stands 25 feet high and stretches 6,774 feet long, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers National Inventory of Dams. It can hold back about 750 acre-feet of water.

The inventory's most recent inspection, in 2023, listed the dam in "poor" condition with a "high" hazard potential. The Corps defines high-hazard-potential dams as those where failure or misoperation would probably cause loss of human life. The "poor" rating means a dam safety deficiency has been identified and remedial action is necessary, or that uncertainties remain about critical analysis parameters tied to a potential deficiency. The same inspection record showed no emergency action plan in place.

The county says the structure held

County spokesperson Ariana Parra said at 8:30 p.m. that there had been "a very small piping failure" that had since been mitigated. "No water is exiting from the dam at this point," she said. "Pumps are en route to the structure to pump water out downstream and alleviate pressure on the dam."

Parra said structures in the area remained at risk of overtopping if more rain fell. Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Interim County Manager Stephen Lopez put it plainly: "There is a potential dam failure warning out for the area."

The weather service said several retention dams in the area were near full, with intense runoff moving through. Three separate Flash Flood Emergencies were issued in New Mexico on Tuesday evening, all tagged with the highest threat designation of catastrophic.

In Garfield, water poured over the top

Alessandra Alanis watched Tuesday as water poured through, out and over the flood-mitigation dam near the land where she and her family farm pecan trees and other crops. "We have farmland and employee housing surrounding this dam," she said. "It's just covered in debris from the mountains and all of the water that kind of rushed through."

Alanis had picked up her daughter from Garfield Elementary School around 1 p.m., shortly before the evacuation orders started arriving. She said the dam was still standing at 6 p.m. and that she planned to watch it through the night.

"We've been praying and praying and praying for rain," Alanis said. "I just don't think anyone expected everyone's prayers to be answered all at once on one day." She said nobody in the valley had been prepared for something like this, because it was not something anyone would have thought about happening.

The orders grew town by town

An emergency alert went out around 2 p.m. warning of a "life threatening situation" because of the "imminent failure" of the dam in Garfield. The county first strongly encouraged several hundred residents of Salem, Garfield and Rincon, north of Las Cruces, to seek safer ground. Shortly before 7 p.m. it added Hatch, which has a population between 1,500 and 1,600. Placitas, a community of a few hundred people to Hatch's west, followed within the hour.

The county uses a three-tier "Ready, Set, Go" system. Ready means gather essentials and make a plan. Set means be prepared to leave immediately. Go means evacuate now and use official routes. At 5:37 p.m., Hatch was still at Ready while Rincon, Garfield and Salem were already at Go.

These are small places. Garfield has about 100 residents based on the 2020 Census and more recent survey data. Rincon has fewer than 300. Salem reports fewer than 1,000.

Cots, snacks and Interstate 25

Evacuees were directed to the Radium Springs Community Center at 12060 L B Lindbeck Road or the Doña Ana Community Resource Center at 5745 Ledesma Drive, both in Las Cruces. Anyone unable to travel south of Hatch was pointed to Hatch Valley High School at 170 Herrera Road. Residents were told to bring medications, identification, important documents, limited essentials and pets, and to use Interstate 25 as the safest route while avoiding flooded roads and low-water crossings. "Residents should not wait until conditions worsen to evacuate," the notice stated.

The American Red Cross set up at Radium Springs. Carina Gonzalez, the organization's Community Disaster Program Manager for Southern New Mexico, said around five to seven residents were there at the time and that the team would stay as long as 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," Gonzalez said. "We will have snacks, water, just a place to come and then from there we will see what other needs arise."

State Rep. Nathan Small was at the Radium Springs site and said reports described water coming over the top of flood control facilities in the northern part of the county, with flooding in the village of Hatch. "I think that everyone needs to be on a higher state of awareness and caution right now," Small said.

The U.S. Border Patrol was among the agencies helping at evacuation sites and shelters. On its social media channels, the county stated, "Agents are NOT conducting immigration enforcement at this time."

A breached arroyo levee and a swollen Rio Grande

Rincon got its own Flash Flood Emergency, in effect until 6:30 p.m. MDT, after county officials reported that the Rincon Arroyo had breached levees near the Rincon water treatment plant. The weather service warned floodwaters could threaten structures there.

Shortly before 7 p.m., a Rio Grande gauge near Rincon measured 10.8 feet with a flow of 6,250 cubic feet per second, the weather service's El Paso station reported. Thunderstorms were still dropping rain as of 7:41 p.m., and by 10:22 p.m. the office reported 1 to 3 inches had fallen. A flood warning stayed in effect until 5:15 a.m. Wednesday.

County officials confirmed the Rio Grande had overtopped its banks, adding in a statement that low-lying areas along the river corridor typically overtop in those specific spots and that there was no reason to believe the levee itself had been compromised. County Commission Chairman Manny Sanchez, whose district includes the Hatch Valley, said he visited the area Tuesday afternoon and found the river at its banks, with Rincon hit pretty hard.

An elementary school cleared, highways cut off

New Mexico State Police helped evacuate Garfield Elementary School earlier Tuesday, said Sgt. Ricardo Breceda, a spokesperson for the agency. He said that as of 5:15 p.m. there were no reported fatalities or injuries. "We have officers out there, federal resources out there, swift rescue teams," Breceda said. "We are actively working the incident."

Flooding closed roads across the valley. NM 185 was shut in both directions from mile marker 32 at Angostura to mile marker 18, three miles north of Radium Springs. NM 140 was closed both ways from mile marker 1, a mile south of Rincon, to mile marker 2 at Rincon. NM 187 was closed from mile marker 6, a mile north of Salem, to mile marker 8, south of Garfield, where water running through dips left the roadway impassable. Drivers were warned never to attempt a flooded or barricaded road.

Polo's leftovers pushed the water north

The rain came from the remnants of Hurricane Polo, which made landfall in Baja California Sur late Monday and rushed into New Mexico with wind gusts between 50 and 60 mph. Moisture from Polo and Tropical Storm Rachel fed storms from Texas to Minnesota, putting more than 150 million people under a flood threat for the week. Forecasters said nearly 80 trillion gallons of water could fall over that stretch, enough to fill about 121 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

A Level 3 out of 4 flash flood risk covered parts of southern and eastern Arizona, much of New Mexico, southern Colorado, the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles and southwestern Nebraska on Tuesday. Dallas sat in the path later in the week with ground too dry to absorb much of anything.

Weather service meteorologist Todd Shoemaker explained what the alert level meant. "If there's a really heightened sense of potential for property loss and impact to life, we'll issue a flash flood emergency, which is basically the highest level," he said. "That is what they've issued. So, it's a particularly dangerous situation."

Rincon residents told to stay put

County officials said residents of Rincon should not return home because of standing floodwaters, and that officials would determine when it was safe. Everyone else heading back was urged to use caution, since flooding, debris, damaged roads and other hazards may remain.

It was not immediately clear how many people were served at the shelters. The Red Cross facilities at Radium Springs and the Doña Ana Community Resource Center stayed open for those who needed them.