BLOOMFIELD — Dante Delvecchio looked at his half-sunk camper resting amid floodwaters at the River Bend RV Park on Monday.

He and his wife had evacuated from the park early Friday morning with their dog after waking up to feet of water outside.

“We heard our neighbor screaming Thursday night, and we had to get out,” he said.

Delvecchio has returned every day since to feed his two cats left inside the camper. But he couldn’t reach them Monday, after more heavy rains brought more flooding to San Juan County.

Residents living half a mile from the Animas, La Plata and San Juan rivers in San Juan County and across state lines in Arizona and Colorado were evacuated Monday as floodwaters struck for the second time in two weeks. Power was preemptively shut off in some areas, affecting hundreds of households.

Delvecchio said he’s lived on the river’s edge here for 20 years and never saw flooding this severe.

The village of Chama in Rio Arriba County also ordered residents to evacuate overnight due to flooding along the Rio Chama.

Flooding impacts in the three states was expected to be huge, San Juan County spokesperson Devin Neeley said, though no fatalities had been reported Monday in the county.

Authorities were searching for a man in Flagstaff, Ariz., who had slipped and fallen into fast-moving floodwaters “and was not seen resurfacing,” police said in a statement.

Gov.’s plea for federal aid

A round of storms over the weekend dumped 1.5 inches on Farmington and 2 to 3 inches on the Durango, Colo., area, Neeley said, citing National Weather Service statistics. Much of the soil in those areas was already saturated from previous storms.

This week’s flooding follows a historic surge of river flooding last week that left at least 1,500 homes damaged across San Juan County. With preliminary damage assessments underway, many previously evacuated residents — officials have estimated between 2,000 and 3,000 were displaced — had not yet returned to their homes when Monday’s evacuation orders were issued.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Monday asked President Donald Trump to declare a major disaster due to flooding in Northern New Mexico from Oct. 22 to Oct. 30, a move that would provide reimbursement for rescues, debris removal and public infrastructure repairs that federal officials failed to act on last week, according to the Governor’s Office.

If Trump approves the new request, residents of San Juan, Cibola, Socorro and Santa Fe counties, and Acoma and Laguna pueblos, would become eligible to apply for federal financial assistance for home repairs, rent, temporary housing and other disaster-related needs.

The governor had made a similar request Oct. 24. The federal government offered direct assistance but did not act on reimbursement, the Governor’s Office said.

“These families have lost their homes, their belongings and in some cases everything they own, and we need the federal government to do its part to help them rebuild,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “I urge the federal government to approve our request without delay.”

Meanwhile, floodwaters lingered in northwestern New Mexico on Monday afternoon, even as the skies above San Juan County began to clear and the sun returned.

‘More people, more area’

“After all the rain we’ve had over the last couple storms, the ground’s pretty saturated and there’s not a lot of places for it to go,” said Vicki Shaffer, a spokesperson for the flooding across Archuleta County in Colorado, where the town of Pagosa Springs had feared a catastrophic surge Sunday night. The San Juan River rose to 16.81 feet — lower than the 21 feet predicted and the 17.8 feet of water that wiped out the town in a 1911 flood.

The Colorado Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management had been working with its New Mexico counterpart to coordinate the response and keep track of how much water might flow across state lines, Shaffer said.

The level of the San Juan River in Colorado was creeping down Monday afternoon, but there was still “a lot” of water outside of the river, she said.

Farmington police Chief Steve Hebbe acknowledged the Pagosa Springs and Durango areas of southern Colorado were hit hard by flooding, but his main concern was for Shiprock in western San Juan County on the Navajo Nation, where the San Juan River was predicted to reach a peak of over 21 feet. The river wasn’t expected to crest in Shiprock until around midnight Monday, he said — a dangerous time to be evacuating people.

“I know they’re working hard to get evacuations done early,” Hebbe said of Navajo officials.

Flooding was expected to last through Tuesday as waters continued flowing downstream from southern Colorado.

“It doesn’t look like there will be a lot of new damage,” Hebbe said, though he thought this week’s river surges could be higher than those last week.

Neeley noted evacuations ordered from this week’s storms involve additional residents who were not evacuated last week.

“This is more area, more people,” he said.

‘We’re doing all we can’

Nearly 200 people had taken refuge at an American Red Cross shelter at McGee Park in Farmington overnight Sunday, Neeley said.

The Farmington Electric Utility System had shut off power in parts of Bloomfield, Lee Acres, the Wild Horse Valley area and the Harper Valley area near the river. The shutoff affected at least a few hundred homes, Neeley estimated.

Residents were encouraged to call a dedicated line at 505-599-1238 to report flood damage to meters, polls or equipment, or standing water near electrical panels, and to schedule post-flood safety inspections or restoration.

All drinking water in the county was safe and available, Neeley noted.

He estimated between 200 and 300 people were rescued during last week’s storms, taxing the energy, time and resources of first responders throughout the county.

“We have done the best we can to keep crews rested and not working 24 hours,” he said. “But people are tired, and we’re doing all we can to keep the wheels turning.”

Local first responders and other workers in San Juan County received help from state crews, with the New Mexico National Guard and New Mexico State Police at the scene, he said.

Members of Team Rubicon, a veteran-led disaster relief organization, were also on the ground. Nate Buccholz, a member of the organization, said the team had been in the area for about four days.

“Things were starting to dry out but then we got this rainfall,” Buccholz said.

‘A fiasco getting out’

Bloomfield resident Almie Lambson was one of many who evacuated twice in two weeks due to flooding on the San Juan River.

“It was a fiasco getting out of there,” he said. “We had to wade through waist-deep water.”

Business owner Sheldon Pickering, who lives about 250 yards north of the San Juan River in Kirtland, said his home is located on a hill and escaped any damage. But his property extends to the river, and a family gathering spot he had developed on the bank with a picnic table, fire pit and barbecue grill was washed away.

That was nothing compared to the losses other people have suffered, he noted, calling the devastation in the area unprecedented. One of his employees at a Farmington carpet cleaning business lost everything except some clothes when she fled as her residence was destroyed in a mobile home park.

Dave Dailey, a Farmington real estate agent, said the flooding seemed to have had an especially heavy impact on people of modest means.

“What I’ve seen the most is the devastation of people closer to the river who don’t have a lot,” he said.

Jamie Church, president and CEO of the Farmington Chamber of Commerce, said her organization has turned over its space on the San Juan College campus in Farmington to the Multi Agency Resource Center, an organization providing centralized flood recovery assistance for people affected by the disaster.

It’s too early to tell how severely the flooding has affected people, she said: “I think right now, everyone’s still trying to figure that out.”

A dry week ahead

Most river levels across Northern New Mexico are expected to recede by Tuesday, though flooding in the San Juan River at Shiprock could continue through late Wednesday.

Meteorologist Matt DeMaria from the National Weather Service in Albuquerque noted in a briefing Monday some of the river gauges were impacted by flooding, so it was difficult to determine where the water levels had peaked.

“Hopefully, in the coming weeks, we can evaluate exactly how high these crests were and have a better idea about the numbers involved,” he said.

No additional rain is expected Tuesday, making it a “pleasant day” for recovery efforts, DeMaria said. Morning lows in the 20s and 30s will give way to highs in the 50s and 60s for much of the state.

Some light rain or snow showers are forecast throughout the week in the Chama area overnight Wednesday, far northeastern New Mexico along the Colorado border Thursday and in southeastern New Mexico on Saturday.

In most areas of the state, the weekend is expected to be seasonable, DeMaria said.

“Fortunately, it should be a dry week, which should help with some of this recovery,” he added.

Staff writer Victoria Traxler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Lily Alexander is a state accountability reporter for The New Mexican and Searchlight New Mexico, focusing on equity and transparency. Her position is part of the New Mexican Public Service Journalism Fund, and her stories are available to all readers without a paywall. Mike Easterling covers business news for The New Mexican.

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