New Mexico county lifts four of five McLeod Dam evacuations

Doña Ana County, New Mexico, lifted evacuation orders late on Sept. 29 for four of the five communities it had ordered out during the day, after dam operators warned that McLeod Dam was close to failing, leaving only Rincon under notice.

Salem and Garfield were told to leave first. Rincon was added as conditions worsened, Hatch received an order at 7:25 p.m. and Placitas was added at 7:47 p.m., according to updates posted by KVIA. The notices strongly encouraged residents to leave without waiting for conditions to worsen, and pointed them to Interstate 25 as the evacuation route.

At 8:30 p.m., county spokesperson Ariana Parra said the dam had suffered "a very small piping failure" that had since been mitigated, and that no water was exiting the structure, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Structures remained at risk of overtopping if more rain fell, Parra said.

Warning of imminent failure

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency on Tuesday afternoon after dam operators reported the imminent failure of McLeod Dam on McLeod Arroyo, in the northwestern part of the county. The alert, in place until 4:45 p.m., warned of the possibility of catastrophic damage and life-threatening conditions in the path of the water and told anyone in low-lying areas below the dam to move to higher ground immediately.

The flash flood emergency came from the agency's El Paso office. Todd Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the agency, described the designation as the top of its scale.

If there's a really heightened sense of potential for property loss and impact to life, we'll issue a flash flood emergency, which is basically the highest level

The first sign of trouble came around 2 p.m., when an emergency alert warned of a life threatening situation because of the imminent failure of McLeod Dam in Garfield, KRWG reported. The Weather Service warning covered rural areas between Garfield and Salem, including portions of Highways 187 and 390 and areas along the Garfield Drain and Garfield Canal.

Doña Ana County uses a three-tier system, Ready, Set and Go, to move communities toward an evacuation. Residents in the Ready stage are told to prepare a bag with medications, identification and documents, keep a vehicle fueled and decide where they will go. At 5:37 p.m. the county placed Hatch in that stage and had Rincon, Garfield and Salem already in the Go phase, KVIA reported.

A dam rated poor

The last inspection of McLeod Dam, in 2023, rated it in poor condition and gave it a high potential hazard classification, with no emergency action plan recorded, according to the National Inventory of Dams.

McLeod Dam is an earthen structure 25 feet high, built to reduce flood risk, and it can hold back about 750 acre-feet of water, the National Inventory of Dams shows. It sits on McLeod Arroyo above farmland in the Hatch Valley, north of Las Cruces, and is known locally as the Garfield dam, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Interim County Manager Stephen Lopez said on Tuesday afternoon that a potential dam failure warning was out for the area. Pumps were sent to the dam to move water downstream and ease pressure on it, Parra said that evening. State Representative Nathan Small was at one of the evacuation points and told KRWG what he had heard from reports.

What we heard, sort of from reports, there is water coming over the top of some flood control facilities in that northern part of Doña Ana county.

County Commission Chairman Manny Sanchez, whose district takes in the Hatch Valley, visited the area on Tuesday afternoon and found the Rio Grande at its banks, with Rincon hit pretty hard, he told the Albuquerque Journal.

The Weather Service had issued several flash flood warnings across the area earlier in the day as thunderstorms moved through, with very heavy rainfall rates in parts of the upper Hatch Valley. Its El Paso station reported that shortly before 7 p.m. a Rio Grande gauge near Rincon measured 10.8 feet, with a flow of 6,250 cubic feet per second. By 10:22 p.m., 1 to 3 inches of rain had fallen.

Roads closed, school emptied

Flooding temporarily closed New Mexico Highway 185 in both directions between Fort Selden and Angostura, a community east of Hatch. Highway 140 was closed for a mile at Rincon, and Highway 187 was closed between Salem and Garfield.

New Mexico State Police helped evacuate Garfield Elementary School in the early afternoon, Sgt. Ricardo Breceda, a spokesperson for the agency, told the Santa Fe New Mexican. He said officers and federal resources, including swift rescue teams, were at work on the incident. As of 5:15 p.m. there were no reported fatalities or injuries.

The county directed evacuees to the Radium Springs Community Resource Center at 12060 Lindbeck Road and the Doña Ana Community Resource Center at 5745 Ledesma Drive in Las Cruces. Hatch Valley High School, at 170 Herrera Road, was opened for people who could not travel south of Hatch, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported. Residents were told to bring medications, identification, documents and items for children and pets.

The U.S. Border Patrol was among the agencies helping at evacuation sites and shelters, and the county said on its social media channels that agents were not conducting immigration enforcement at the time.

Orders lifted late Tuesday

Doña Ana County lifted the evacuation orders for Salem, Hatch, Garfield and Placitas at about 10:46 p.m., KVIA reported, and told people going home to be careful of flooding, debris and damaged roads. As of 11 p.m., only Rincon remained under an evacuation notice because of the dangers of standing floodwaters, the Albuquerque Journal reported. A flood warning for the area remained in effect until 5:15 a.m. Wednesday.

The American Red Cross was at the Radium Springs shelter, where about five to seven residents had arrived when KRWG visited on Tuesday evening. Carina Gonzalez, the organization's community disaster program manager for southern New Mexico, said staff would stay as long as they were needed, with cots for the night, snacks and water.

Alessandra Alanis, who farms pecan trees and other crops with her family near the dam, watched water pour through, out and over the structure on Tuesday, she told the Santa Fe New Mexican. She had picked up her daughter from Garfield Elementary School at about 1 p.m., shortly before the notices came. They had been praying for rain, she said.

I just don't think anyone expected everyone's prayers to be answered all at once on one day.

Alanis said the dam was still standing at 6 p.m., and she planned to keep an eye on it through the night.

It was not immediately clear how many people were served at the shelters, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Garfield has about 100 residents, based on the 2020 census and more recent survey data, and Rincon has fewer than 300, while Salem reports fewer than 1,000. The county's updates did not describe the dam's condition after the pumps arrived.

What the county has not said

Doña Ana County said it would keep posting updates on evacuation areas, road conditions and available resources through its official social media channels and website. Residents were told to follow directions from emergency crews and not to go home until authorities said it was safe. The county has not said how long the notice for Rincon will remain.