LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Two people died and one person is missing after flash flooding hit an area in northern New Mexico on Thursday, authorities said.
Emergency responders found the bodies on Thursday afternoon in a creek, along with a capsized vehicle, the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Friday. The flash flooding occurred in the “burn scar” area east of Santa Fe where the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire has destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres in recent months, KOAT-TV reported.
According to the sheriff’s office, the bodies of two females were found in different places along Tecolote Creek. Search dogs continue to search for the third missing person, who is believed to be a male, the sheriff’s office said.
Heavy rains flooded Tecolote Creek west of Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
“Richer monsoon moisture” is expected across much of New Mexico on Sunday, and there will be an increased risk of flash flooding through the middle of next week, the National Weather Service in Albuquerque wrote on its Facebook page. It warned that burn scars caused by wildfires would be “especially susceptible to runoff, flash flooding and debris flow.”
Tim Nix, chief of the Cabo Lucero Volunteer Fire Department, said the two bodies were discovered Thursday afternoon west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, The Associated Press reported. Nix said his team responded to a call of a vehicle washed away by floodwaters. No one was in the vehicle when firefighters arrived at the scene.
The Hermits Peak/Canyon Creek fire has burned more than 341,000 acres, an area larger than the city of Los Angeles, according to The New York Times. It was 93% contained as of Friday.
The fire is a merger of two smaller blazes that started as prescribed burns set by the government, according to the newspaper.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said she is “deeply saddened by the tragic deaths.”
“For a community that has already been through so much this year, this loss is another heartbreaking blow,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “I want to express my most sincere condolences to their loved ones. As we await news on a third missing person in the flooding area, my thoughts are also with their family and the entire community. I am deeply grateful to the law enforcement officers and National Guard members who responded to the area and are assisting in the search.”
At least two individuals are reportedly dead in San Miguel County and another person is missing after flash flooding in the burn scar of the Calfs Canyon/Hermits Peak fire, my colleague @theresa__davis reports: https://t.co/xuA6NETxbV via @ABQJournal #nmwx
— Dan Boyd (@DanBoydNM) July 22, 2022
Authorities have not released the names of the victims or the missing person.
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