Arroyo rescues end safely

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Tuesday, a brief summer storm created a wall of water, sweeping three people into an Albuquerque arroyo.

The wall of water nearly took down two more people.

All five people were quickly accounted for and safe. The worst of the injuries belonged to a 13-year-old boy who suffered some cuts and bruises.

Safety Director for A.S. Horner Inc. Jay Myers said it was a close call for four of his workers when the arroyo they were working in suddenly flooded. They said they didn't see it coming.

"The truck started filling up with water, he said it was really scary," Myers said. "Very quickly, two of my guys were actually in a tunnel."

When the water came rushing, one construction worker was on a lift and another was in a truck. Myers said they were working on the Interstate 40/San Mateo widening project.

"It was a very short storm about 15 to 20 minutes," Field Engineer for the Albuquerque Metropolitan Arroyo Flood Control Authority Kurt Wagener said.

Wagener said the water was traveling at a speed of about 20-30 miles per hour.

An AMAFCA staff member noticed the arroyo flooding and went outside with a camera to snap a photo of the storm water.

Instead, he captured pictures of the construction worker's truck as it floated by and eventually rolled over. Then the AMAFCA employee snapped images of a person clinging to the truck.

AFD said that person was a 13-year-old boy who'd also gotten swept away in the arroyo near Eubank Blvd.

"The one thing he told me was, 'I can't swim,'" Albuquerque Fire Department driver Manuel Valenzuela said.

He and AFD driver Julian Trujillo helped pull the teen out of the water near Candelaria after his five-mile trip.

Meanwhile, there was a third rescue mission at I-40 and San Mateo when two different A.S. Horner workers got stuck on an overhang. Myers said the scaffolding underneath them buckled from the water's pressure.

Rescuers eventually got to them by pulling them out of a hole they had made in the bridge.

The pair who floated down the arroyo actually crawled out at Carlisle by themselves.

A picture taken by the AMAFCA employee shows the construction workers smiling after the ordeal.

"They're healthy, they're fine, they're scared," Myers said. "They said it was pretty spooky."