New Mexico authorities rescue hundreds after flooding strands many in high water and leaves 2 dead

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A southeastern New Mexico community began to dry out Monday after historic rainfall over the weekend produced severe flooding that left at least two people dead and hundreds stranded on rooftops.

Waterlogged vehicles were still submerged along some city streets in Roswell, while others were seen smashed along bridge supports and tossed up against trees and power poles after being swept away by the floodwaters on Saturday and Sunday.

All the standing water and mangled masses of twisted guardrails and splintered wood were scenes unfamiliar for the community. Surrounded by usually dusty plains and dairy farms, Roswell isn’t famous for any notable rainfall but rather for being the spot where a spacecraft purportedly crashed in 1947.

Less than a foot (30.5 centimeters) of rain usually falls in Roswell an average year, but forecasters with the National Weather Service in Albuquerque said Monday that the weekend deluge was spurred by an upper-level low pressure system that was parked over Arizona.

“So the moisture just kept funneling and funneling and funneling up across eastern New Mexico,” meteorologist Jennifer Shoemake said. “They got multiple days of heavy rainfall and severe weather in that area because that storm system was just not moving.”

More than 300 people were rescued by the New Mexico National Guard, with 38 of those taken to hospitals for treatment of undisclosed injuries. New Mexico State Police said two people died as a result of the flash flood, but information on the victims or the circumstances of their deaths wasn’t immediately released.

Even Chaves County Sheriff Mike Herrington posted a video on social media in which he was standing on top of his vehicle surrounded by water. Herrington said he had to go to the roof of his vehicle when it and several other vehicles became stranded in water that rose up to the windows.

At the civic center, a birthday party was derailed Saturday when floodwaters began pouring onto the dance floor. At first, some people tried to keep dancing while Moises Torres and his band, La Fuerza Del Bravo, played on.

“It looked like we were going down like the Titanic,” he told The Associated Press.

As the water continued to rise, the guests rushed to the roof. Torres said he was hesitant to leave his band equipment behind, but as soon as the water reached the top of the stage, the band joined the party guests. Torres captured videos from the roof of floating cars in the rushing floodwaters.

“The water was dragging everything that was in the way,” he said.

The group huddled in the cold on the roof for several hours as the rain continued through the night, Torres said.

Rescue crews arrived around daybreak Sunday as the water receded. The group descended from the roof to find the civic center filled with mud.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared an emergency Monday in response to the flooding, clearing the way for $1 million in state funding to bolster relief efforts. She met with city officials who were charting the path for cleanup and recovery.

Roswell City Councilor Juliana Halvorson told the AP that despite warnings Saturday morning for the potential for severe weather later that day, no one was expecting the subsequent flooding. She has surveyed much of the damaged and noted that many homeowners don’t have flood insurance.

“There’s too much devastation to see in one day,” she said. “Some homes still have 4 or 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) of water or more. The water picked up cars and chunks of concrete, and those things are so heavy.”

Authorities were forced to close roads leading to and from the city on Sunday. Water levels have since receded in many areas.

Forecasters said 5.78 inches (about 14.7 centimeters) of rain fell on Roswell on Saturday, breaking the city’s previous daily record of 5.65 inches (about 14.6 centimeters) set on Nov. 1, 1901. Some areas surrounding Roswell received around 9 inches (22.9 centimeters) of rain in a matter of hours, according to the National Weather Service.

“It was a storm that just kept building and building south of town,” City Councilor Edward “Ed” Heldenbrand said. “It was never anticipated that it would rain for five hours.”

He spent part of Monday morning driving around to check on some property he owns.

“Roads damaged. Bridges damaged. Fences down. Vehicles piled up everywhere. A cargo container overturned next to car,” he said. “An unbelievable picture of destruction.”

Berry reported from Phoenix. AP journalist Beatrice Dupuy contributed from New York.

This image provided by Tom Hudgens shows flooding in Roswell, N.M., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Tom Hudgens via AP)

This image provided by Tom Hudgens shows damage caused by flooding in Roswell, N.M., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Tom Hudgens via AP)

This image provided by Tom Hudgens shows flooding in Roswell, N.M., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Tom Hudgens via AP)

This image provided by Tom Hudgens shows flooding in Roswell, N.M., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Tom Hudgens via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

This image provided by Tom Hudgens shows the aftermath of flooding in Roswell, N.M., Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (Tom Hudgens via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, a man removes debris from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

In this image taken from video, debris and damage and are seen from severe flooding in Roswell, N.M., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (Juliana Halvorson via AP)

The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated filed a defamation lawsuit on Monday against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month's presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.

“Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in the federal complaint.

The men are upset because Trump essentially “defamed them in front of 67 million people, which has caused them to seek to clear their names all over again,” co-lead counsel Shanin Specter told The Associated Press in an email.

Specter had no comment when asked if there were concerns some see the lawsuit as purely political because of the group's support for Harris. “We are seeking redress in the courts,” Specter said.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung decried the suit as “just another frivolous, Election Interference lawsuit, filed by desperate left-wing activists, in an attempt to distract the American people from Kamala Harris’s dangerously liberal agenda and failing campaign.”

Trump campaign officials did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise were teenagers when they were accused of the 1989 rape and beating of a white woman jogger in New York City's Central Park. The five, who are Black and Latino, said they confessed to the crimes under duress. They later recanted, pleading not guilty in court, and were later convicted after jury trials. Their convictions were vacated in 2002 after another person confessed to the crime.

After the crime, Trump purchased a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty. At the time, many in New York believed Trump’s ad was akin to calling for the teens to be executed. The jogger case was Trump’s first foray into tough-on-crime politics that preluded his full-throated populist political persona. Since then, dog whistles and overtly racist rhetoric have been fixtures of Trump’s public life.

In the Sept. 10 debate, Trump misstated key facts of the case when Harris brought up the matter.

“They admitted, they said they pled guilty and I said, ’well, if they pled guilty they badly hurt a person, killed a person ultimately ... And they pled guilty, then they pled not guilty,” Trump said.

He appeared to be confusing guilty pleas with confessions. Also, no victim died.

The now Exonerated Five, including Salaam, who is now a New York City councilman, have been campaigning for Harris. Some of them spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, calling out Trump for never apologizing for the newspaper ad.

They have also joined civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton for a get-out-the-vote bus tour.

Prior defamation suits involving Trump have led to sizable amounts awarded to the plaintiffs. In January, a jury awarded $83.3 million to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll over Trump's continued social media attacks against her claims he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in 1996. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing her and issued a $5 million judgement.

FILE - The Central Park Five join Reverend Al Sharpton during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, file)

This combination photo shows, clockwise from top left, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Korey Wise and Kevin Richardson, known as Central Park five. (AP Photo)