Town leaders chided residents for warning of flash floods. Then, the river took two children. — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford dismissed resident flood warnings on social media in late June 2025, calling them fear-mongering, as the village promoted tourism during a high-risk monsoon season
- Village of Ruidoso officials reduced the emergency threat level on June 27, 2025, and issued a public plea to stop sharing 'fear-based falsehoods,' even as internal records showed heightened flood risks upstream
- Rio Ruidoso floodwaters tore through the Riverview RV Park on July 8, 2025, sweeping away 7-year-old Sebastian Rowan Trotter and 4-year-old Charlotte Trotter, who were camping with their family
- Fire Chief Cade Hall and emergency managers knew of the high flood risk due to burn scars from the South Fork and Salt fires, which destroyed 1,000 homes in 2024 and left soils unable to absorb rain
- State and village engineers modeled catastrophic flooding scenarios before the 2025 season and warned of likely impacts, but leaders prioritized reopening the Ruidoso Downs Race Track with a $16 million state-funded culvert repair
- ProPublica reported that five anonymous first responders said the tragedy was avoidable, citing decisions that prioritized tourism over safety, including failure to evacuate vulnerable areas despite radar alerts
- Thora Walsh Padilla, former president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe, stated that financial incentives drove risk-taking with tourists’ lives, as officials downplayed dangers to protect the summer economy
Why it matters: The flood exposed a deadly gap between scientific warnings and policy choices: despite clear hydrologic risks and federal relocation advice, leaders bet on tourism, putting visitors like the Trotter family in harm’s way. The $16 million investment in the racetrack—versus no relocation of at-risk residents—shows where priorities lay.
Ask SkimNews
