The mountain village of Ruidoso has returned to the grim rituals of rebuilding from flash flooding. Crews are working to clear twisted metal, broken trees and muddy debris from streets and homes days after monsoon rains triggered a deadly flash flood in southern New Mexico.

Sandbags protect a building in Ruidoso, New Mexico after floods swept through town in July of 2024. This week's floods rose significantly higher. Photo: The Washington Post

Watch the terrifying moment a New Mexico home was swept away in raging floodwaters on July 8. Several people died in the storm.

Flash flooding from heavy rain killed at least three people and prompted dozens of rescues in the Ruidoso area of southern New Mexico, officials said — the same area devastated by wildfires last year.

At least three people were killed by historic flash floods in a New Mexico mountain community that suffered devastating wildfires last year, officials said late Tuesday.

As residents and businesspeople in Ruidoso assess the damage caused by heavy and dangerous flooding, others can find ways to help. Here is what to know.

"The main reason was the South Fork Fire last year that burned directly west of Ruidoso," Grzywacz said. "The soil wasn't able to absorb any of the rainfall, and it runs right down into Ruidoso. Normally, if you had that vegetation still there, it could absorb it. For the Ruidoso monsoon season, it was above average rain but not record rainfall."

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Three people were killed when monsoon rains triggered flash flooding in a New Mexico village, sending walls of water, mud and debris rushing down mountainsides that have been repeatedly scarred over recent years by wildfires and post-fire flooding.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency for the village of Ruidoso, in an area that was scarred by wildfires last year.

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was in Ruidoso on Thursday, July 10, 2025, where she reported federal funding will be coming.

The neighbouring state of Texas also experienced a major flood just a few days earlier, but with a very different outcome. The ferocity of the inundation in Texas caught forecasters and state officials by surprise, killing at least 120 people.