Terrible Devastation in Ruidoso, New Mexico...

Over the past weekend, my favorite place to go skiing in the Winter, Ruidoso, New Mexico, experienced horrible devastation from flooding. Apparently, the rains came as the tail end of Hurricane Dolly. From what I understand, they received 12 inches of rain in one hour, causing a massive amount of flooding in the sleepy mountain town. Local bridges were washed away, stranding some residents. Campers had to be rescued by The National Guard. The normally almost non-exsistent Rio Ruidoso (which has actually always been a local joke) has become a raging, flowing river. More than 300 people had to be evacuated from their homes and the damage is heart wrenching. More than 60 homes have been completely destroyed and 4 bridges were totally taken out by the rushing rivers of flood water. There was even one house that actually took a ride down the Rio Ruidoso, where it then broke into jillions of pieces.





Upper Canyon, where Mr. Snooty's Aunt has a beautiful home, received the greatest amount of damage and the residents are still stranded until a makeshift bridge can be constructed. A friend talked to Aunt J and she said she's fine and that everyone is sharing everything they have on hand, so it seems they have all pulled together during this disaster. Full time residents of Ruidoso number right at 9,500 people, with the county of Lincoln numbering around 19,000.


For the first time ever, Ruidoso Downs Racetrack (Home of the Great American Futurity) was almost completely washed away during this flood caused by Hurricane Dolly. I can't imagine what the cost of that damage will turn out to be. Horse racing is their Summer Bread & Butter and Skiing is their Winter Bread & Butter. However, horse racing is their biggest industry and 2/3 of the track was washed away by the flooding.



Ruidoso has had more than their fair share of problems over the years. Some years it doesn't snow enough to even open the ski area (which is when I go to Taos) and other years they have so much snow that they can hardly keep up with it. The last 4 or 5 Summers, they've had raging forest fires that ended up causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and many vacation homes, as well as local's homes, were lost. Ruidoso is truly going to be struggling to get back on their feet this time. The devastation I've seen in pictures and on camera footage in the news is totally mind-blowing. I've been going there for 33 years and I've never seen anything like it.


If you're interested, you can go to this site and see numerous videos of the destruction caused by the flooding. The saddest part is that they have more rain in their forecast. Let's pray that it doesn't happen. I've always just loved going to Ruidoso, as have both my children. My children both learned to ski there and my daughter was one of the top ten Nastar skiers in the country, when she competed there. We have so many wonderful memories of going there, so this really does break my heart to see. I have many friends who live there and I've put in calls to them, but haven't yet heard back from them yet. I'm certain they are all okay, but I really just wanted to be certain.