By Misty Cryer
Over the weekend of October 19, communities in Chavez County experienced excessive rainfall that led to dangerous floodwaters, devastating damage to infrastructure and property, and at least one confirmed casualty. A specialized team from the Carlsbad Fire Department responded to assist in rescue efforts.
“Carlsbad Fire Department was requested to provide swift water rescue resources to the flooding in Chavez County around midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning,” Fire Chief Anthony (Tony) Souza said in an interview earlier this week. “We sent the complement of five individuals that ended up being six by the next day because we had one of our members living locally in Roswell who joined them the next morning,” he said.
“Five individuals—that night—deployed our Swift Water Team to parts of Dexter, Midway, and Roswell and performed around 30 rescues. That included people who were trapped on vehicles and on top of structures,” Souza said.
“As of right now, the flood waters have receded. Now, it’s just a matter of collecting debris; most of the thoroughfare roads are clear. I think they are still now working on smaller roads and alleyways to get them free of debris,” said Souza.
“Everything north of College Boulevard is essentially untouched. Geographically, there is a big hill that ascends right at that point, so I guess that would be high ground,” he said.
“The concentration of the damage is around the Spring River area. That is typically a dry riverbed that runs directly through downtown Roswell right past the Civic Center,” said Souza. He said there was damage at the Civic Center, and the neighborhoods around Cahoon Park were severely damaged.
The Rio Felix Bridge between Roswell and Artesia was damaged, he said. “The state engineers were out over the weekend to assess the damage and felt it was unsafe to allow traffic over—285 between Artesia and Roswell is impassible. I think you could drive on sections of it, but that bridge is definitely closed.” He said most commuter traffic goes through Dexter and Hagerman on State Road 2.
“As far as I know, the official casualty list was that one individual who lost their life. I have not received any updated or official information regarding that,” said Souza.
When asked about the legitimacy of residents with boats in Carlsbad being asked to assist, he said, “That is either a rumor or poor advice. We would never ask our citizens to engage in dangerous activities. We have our own equipment—our own watercraft—we are fully complemented on that.”
About the Carlsbad Fire Department Swift Water Rescue Team, Souza said, “They are men and women who are extremely competent in what they do. We have gone all over the country getting this type of training. It is a resource that is needed in our part of the state because we deal with this sort of condition almost every year.”
In comparison, Souza said, “Communities like Roswell, they don’t see this type of flooding but every two decades. We’re happy to be able to provide that resource and hopefully make a difference and a positive impact on helping our neighbors.”
Aside from the Swift Water Rescue Team, he said, “We deploy technical rescue teams in a variety of different specialties.” Additional teams within the Carlsbad Fire Department he mentioned include Cave and Trench Rescue, High Angle Rope Rescue, Hazardous Materials Response Team, Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Specialty Team, and the Dive Team.
About the Dive Team, Souza said, “It’s a little different than swift water. Swift water is for moving flood waters and effective rescue during that condition. A dive team is essentially scuba with people who go into bodies of water to do recovery and rescue as well. We’re pretty spun up on the different facets of rescue that we could potentially encounter.”
Carlsbad Fire Department works alongside Eddy County Fire Rescue regularly, Souza said. “Not only do we train alongside them and conduct drills with them, but we also run EMS calls within the county with them. There is a really, really strong, close relationship with ECFR,” he said.
“We have also forged relationships with Artesia Fire with collaborative training, and of course, now, we’ve done some good work, I think, this last weekend with Roswell Fire Department. As far as Hobbs, I know that we’ve done some collaborative action with them, mostly training with them in the past, but none in recent history that I can remember,” Souza said.
Carlsbad Fire Department also works with non-fire department entities, he said. “With Carlsbad Medical Center, we’re working with them hourly, just about, on patient care. We’ve got a really strong relationship with them as well as our flight services—medevac flight services from Native Air and Trans Aero MedEvac—those guys and gals work alongside us as well,” he said.
“I’m very proud of our fire department and community. In addition to the fire department’s response, I know that city administration was already in talks with city operations to see if we needed to supplement Roswell with materials for sandbags. Ultimately, that request never came in or was needed. This was a community-wide response. Obviously, the fire department had a big hand in it. We were ready to act as a community to help out our neighbor. I just couldn’t be prouder of where we live and where we work,” said Souza.
Comments