Torrential rains pummeled parts of eastern New Mexico overnight Saturday, dumping more than a third of the city of Roswell’s annual rainfall total in just a few hours.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency alert on Sunday, urging residents to seek higher ground.
Forecasters had warned of a rash of severe thunderstorms in the eastern part of the state Saturday evening, with hail, severe lightning and heavy rainfall. By 5 a.m. on Sunday, Roswell had broken it’s daily record for rainfall, with 5.78 inches of rain.
Videos showed surging floodwaters turning parks into rivers and stalling cars across the city center. Flash flood warnings remained in effect on Sunday morning for parts of Chaves County, which includes Roswell, and De Baca and Roosevelt Counties.
On social media early Sunday, the Chaves County sheriff, Mike Herrington, urged Roswell residents to stay home, and said every available emergency service employee was working to assist stranded residents. Soon after, on Facebook, Sheriff Herrington posted a video from the roof of his car — he had been stranded, he said, in rushing floodwaters.
“At this time I am sitting on the roof of my cop car, my police truck,” he said. “I am completely surrounded by water. “Came into this not expecting that much water, and before I knew it I was swept off into this.”
Authorities closed all roads into and out of Roswell as videos showed cars submerged in flash floods at major intersections and on interstate highways.
The post Heavy Rainfall Leads to Flash Flood Emergency in New Mexico appeared first on New York Times.
