Las Vegas Mayor Louie Trujillo said steps are being taken to prevent the kind of devastation that took place when flash flooding soaked the community last year.
“Last year it sort of rained every single day,” Trujillo told KOAT. “Many communities suffered a lot of anguish because of the flooding.”
Burn scars from the Hermit’s Peak Calf Canyon fire are still being monitored by state agencies, and alarms have been put in place to monitor the water levels across Gallinas Creek, the city’s most crucial water source. “If the flow increases rapidly it triggers other warnings,” Trujillo said.
The National Weather Service in Albuquerque said water levels are higher than usual due to heavy snow melt. “We have well above normal levels of moisture actually for mid to late May,” Trujillo said. “This is quite unusual for the amount of moisture we have across the state.”
The mayor is hopeful the preparations work. “I'm 100 percent convinced that we have done a great job in managing those crises for our community,” Trujillo said.
Las Vegas isn't the only city concerned about high water levels. The melting snowpack is causing water levels to rise across New Mexico and the Navajo Nation. "There are plenty of areas in the state where I think we're going to be seeing these rises. The streams and the creeks are all going to be running kind of fast and kind of high with very, very cold water," Andrew Manghan with the National Weather Service said.
Earlier this month, water levels in the Jemez River reached flood levels. The Jemez feeds into the Rio Grande, heads downstream and is held at Elephant Butte.
There is a good side to the high-water levels. Due to the surplus in the snowpack, water allotments for farmers will be upgraded to 14 inches this irrigation season.