Aug. 10—The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved nearly $5 million so far in aid for homeowners and renters who suffered losses in the recent South Fork and Salt wildfires and flooding that ravaged the Ruidoso area.
The community is still reeling, Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford said Friday, even as the deadline to apply for federal aid quickly approaches.
“I’ve got so many people in dire need,” he said.
Crawford expressed frustration with the pace of the disaster relief his village is receiving and, more broadly, FEMA’s bureaucracy. He said about 258 people are staying in hotels around Ruidoso and throughout Lincoln County with the new school year soon set to begin.
“There’s a lot of recovery efforts that are being talked about, planned on, spun up as they call it,” Crawford said. “But the actual rubber on the road is taking a while.”
He added, “In the meantime, the little folks get eat up. They drown. They don’t get taken care of. They have to move off. They became another statistic in the system of broken programs.”
People staying at the Red Cross shelter in Capitan after fleeing from their homes during the fires relayed harrowing scenes — an orange sky with mushroom clouds and a line of vehicles that stretched on for about a mile amid the evacuation.
Homeowners and renters affected by the fires and flooding have until Aug. 19 to apply for federal disaster assistance. The deadline to apply for a long-term, low-interest disaster loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration also is Aug. 19.
FEMA spokesman Robert Howard wrote in an email the agency has approved almost $5 million to 475 homeowners and renters, and the Small Business Administration has provided more than $6.5 million in low-interest disaster loans to 24 homeowners.
Many households already have received funds, Howard wrote.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham — who had declared a state of emergency in Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation — also signed legislation after a special session in July that included $100 million in disaster relief for communities hit by wildfires and flooding.
The bill sets aside $70 million for loans for local governments to replace or repair public infrastructure damaged by the Salt and South Fork fires and flooding.
But Crawford noted projects must first be approved by FEMA for the state to issue a loan, and that could slow things down.
“That $70 million is going to go pretty quick,” Crawford said.
Crawford spoke about the ambient sense of anxiety in the Ruidoso area with New Mexico’s monsoon season still active.
“Where the flooding actually starts is on forestry land and tribal land, and we’re down at the bottom and we just catch everything,” Crawford said.
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