VIDEO: First responders in Lincoln County conducted 65 water rescues Tuesday as flooding hit the village of Ruidoso. But officers and firefighters weren’t the only people helping. Corey Sexton and his family in a home off Paradise Canyon, that backs up to the Rio Ruidoso. Sexton told KOAT he received multiple alerts warning him of the weather and possible flooding that could come with it.
Just after 2 p.m. Sexton, his wife and their son heard the wall of water heading their direction. “Even if you didn’t see the water coming, you could feel it in the ground. You could feel the house. You could feel the walls shaking,” said Sexton. Almost 20 feet of water gushed through their backyard, bringing debris with it. Sexton and his family sat and watched the water as it progressively got more vicious.
“It just kept growing and growing,” said Sexton. “It came across the road over here. It was going to the bridge.” The water then tore through an RV park, moving up cars, trucks and campers before making its way through multiple homes across the river from Sexton.
“It made its own path and chose where it was going to go,” said Sexton. “It was enough pressure behind it started pushing campers and stuff through there.” That’s when the Sexton family realized it was time to leave. As they got to the top of their driveway, the heard a commotion. “These campers had people trapped in them at the park, they rode their camper down the river,” said Sexton.
