Flow and Irma
By Jenny Arrieta
“The fire department came out and said ‘get to higher ground!’ We had no idea it was this dangerous.”
Flo Harris, 71, recounted moments from an afternoon in July of this year, moments that would impact her life and the lives of those around her.
“Three minutes later they came back through and said ‘evacuate now – get out!’ It was very interesting, very scary. This was all new to us, we had no idea how dangerous it was.”
Flo and her sister, Irma Easley, 75, lived in an RV park just outside of Ruidoso, a picturesque mountain town tucked into the Sierra Blanca range in central New Mexico. Nearby skiing, hiking and camping make the area a popular one for tourists and residents alike. Having relocated to Ruidoso less than a year prior, the sisters were happy to call this mountain village home.
“We lived very near the cutest little creek you ever saw. We thought it was the most beautiful thing until it overflowed - way overflowed - and this water started coming over walls,” Flo remembers.
The “cutest little creek” was in fact the Rio Ruidoso River, a normally bubbling slip of water that meandered its way through the area, including the sisters’ neighborhood, River Ranch RV Park.
On July 8, an angry monsoon storm dumped 3.5 inches of rain on the area in less than two hours, saturating the burn scars from 2024’s South Fork and Salt fires. The resulting slurry of water, mud and debris hurled down the Sierra Blanca range into the Rio Ruidoso, causing the water level to rise to a record-breaking 20.24 feet within 30 minutes. As it broke its banks, the muddy torrent took out nearly everything in its path. Hundreds of homes were destroyed or outright swept away, along with damage to infrastructure, including roads, bridges and telephone poles. Dozens of swift water rescues were conducted in the initial hours of the flood as the community reeled in horror and disbelief. At least 300 people were displaced from their homes, and three people lost their lives.
“Unbelievable. The water destroyed so much. It was just…we didn’t know what to do,” said Flo.
Thanks to the pointed warning from the fire department, the sisters were able to safely evacuate to higher ground while the flood raged. As the water receded hours later, they could see the damage was extensive and severe; this was also the case when they returned to the RV park briefly to salvage what they could.
“Two RVs got swept away, and the little building where the washer and dryer was, that’s gone,” said Irma. “We were kind of one of the luckier ones as (our home) was up against a wall, so the water only got halfway up our RV. Others had water up over them.”
Their two cats thankfully managed to survive, and the sisters were able to grab a few items; many of their possessions, however, were ruined by the muck. Surveying their peaceful RV community, they were stunned by the brute force that had just destroyed their mountain paradise only hours before.
Local RV parks, mobile homes and campsites were especially hard hit, as scenes of mud-spattered RVs contorted around trees or dumped on their sides soon appeared online. Media outlets converged on the area, interviewing survivors and local officials. People had fled with minutes – some even seconds – to spare, leaving behind cars, purses, phones. The local racetrack, Ruidoso Downs, damaged and inundated with mud and debris, was forced to cancel its 2025 racing season. An emergency declaration was approved for impacted counties and officials and locals began to wonder what, if anything, could be salvaged. For some, the answer was nothing.
As first responders, officials and the National Guard stood up a response in Ruidoso, so did the American Red Cross. Volunteers established a shelter at the local middle school, providing sleeping cots and blankets, meals, toiletries and disaster health services. Flo and Irma were among its residents, and despite their ordeal, there they found a semblance of comfort and normalcy – and even new friends.
“We decided to go to the shelter. I walked in with mud up to my knees,” said Flo. “I tell you these Red Cross workers were absolutely fabulous. They were so precious – precious people.”
Disaster shelters are often temporary havens for those that need them, a place of refuge amidst a turbulent situation like a flood. While basic needs are met for its residents, it is the Red Cross volunteers who often make the difference. Having a friendly face, someone to talk to, even a hug can be a balm for someone who’s undergone a trauma and faces as yet many unknowns. In Flo and Irma’s case, they’d survived the flood but lost nearly everything in the span of an afternoon. Questions around what comes next were on many minds.
“I mean it was just amazing. We had never been in this situation, we were petrified. We didn’t know what to do, and these Red Cross ladies and gentlemen attended to us like we were family. They made us feel comfortable,” said Flo. “I said ‘Let me just get a shower,’ and we got showers in the gym which was wonderful. They had the cots set up for us and everything. It was like our little home.”
Flo and Irma made several friends in the shelter, and along with the volunteers, created a community amongst strangers. Avid crocheters, the sisters also passed the time with crochet projects.
“One of the volunteers, Joyce Ann, she brought us patterns and we just had a good ‘ol time,” said Flo. Red Crosser Monica, who also enjoys crocheting, made a doll for the sisters’ great granddaughter. While Bella, 10, normally lives with the sisters, she was thankfully visiting family in Texas at the time of the flood.
“The (Red Cross) fed us, (provided clothes donations), gave us toiletries, just everything that we needed and they were so precious. They called us ‘The Sisters.’ We couldn’t ask them to be much better.”
After four days in the shelter, Flo and Irma were relocated to a hotel, the Ruidoso Mountain Inn. While the hotel staff were “the nicest people you’d ever want to meet,” according to Flo, the sisters missed their shelter community.
“We really wanted to stay longer at the shelter,” said Irma, chuckling. “We’re still friends with (the volunteers), we see them around town.”
While at the hotel for nearly a month, the Red Cross continued to support the sisters and other shelter residents, providing lunch and dinner and connecting them to recovery resources, including financial assistance.
“It was an all-around good experience,” said Irma. “We kept in touch with (the Red Cross) all the time. One of the volunteers even offered to take us to a nearby town to look for a new RV.
The sisters were eventually able to move into an apartment (located with the help of a volunteer) while they determined their long-term housing plans. Now, nearly five months later, Flo, Irma, their great granddaughter, Bella, and their two cats are preparing to move into a new RV and resume a part of the life they led before the storm.
When reflecting on their ordeal, they have a new respect for Mother Nature.
“Even now, if you’re up in the cabins,” said Irma, referring to an area popular for cabin stays but unfortunately, at risk for flooding. “If it starts to rain, you get out or you won’t be getting out.”
Their recovery has not been without its challenges or disappointments, but in the end, they have emerged resilient and are able to continue life in their mountain paradise. While the flood and its aftermath are now part of the sisters’ story in Ruidoso, so is their incredible spirit and gratitude, all thanks to each other, their faith and their community – which now includes the “precious people” of the Red Cross.
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