Jemez Springs residents are hastily working to repair their homes as continuous snowmelt brings dangerous flooding to the area according to a KRQE article published on Friday. Officials expected water levels to rise through the weekend.
"So this morning, when I woke up this field, was completely dry and by like eleven o’clock it was full,” said San Ysidro resident Gabriel Griego.
Although he could still walk through his driveway on Wednesday, by Thursday, Griego could only make his way through using his excavator. According to him, while the New Mexico government brought him millings to help protect his home from the rising water, he's going through his stock quickly and is concerned that his new home which was built only a year ago will be destroyed.
“I’m really worried, I mean I’m just barely building my new house right now and it’s uh, yeah I’m getting worried,” said Griego.
The National Weather Service reported that the Jemez Mountains received some of the deepest snowpacks in decades and have been showing high runoff levels. Most of the flooding in San Ysidro impacting Highway 4 is due to a breached levee, according to county officials. Said officials said that they're also monitoring potential rain.
“If we get a rain event on top of this melt event, we’re gonna get a lot more water coming down a lot faster," said Sandoval County Manager Wayne Johnson. "In which case some of these bridges may overtop, some of them may fail."
This is the first I’ve ever seen the river overflow this much. it’s kind of a shock because I’ve never seen anything like this in my life," said resident Leonard Pino, whose home belonged to his grandfather and was undergoing renovations.
Despite the dangers associated with the flooding, many residents don't plan on abandoning their homes.
“We just didn’t want to have the house flooded and all our belongings inside just get washed away,” Pino said.
“It’s scary but I’m not going nowhere. I’ll dig up my whole yard if I have to,” Griego said.
Officials said that Highway 4 is currently open and being monitored, and residents can pick sandbags up at their local fire stations.