Floods follow fires; Gila preparing

SANTE FE (KRQE) - As crews keep attacking the record-setting Whitewater Baldy fire in the Gila, different crews are mapping out a plan to keep the inevitable flooding that follows out of people homes.

The New Mexico Department of Homeland Security is sending 7,000 sandbags plus barriers, backhoes and more to the Gila National Forest in the next few days.

All of it will be used to prep for what could be serious flooding during the monsoon.

The Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire has scorched the earth, and that increases flood risk a lot.  All the brush that would have held back water is now gone.

Crews are down there now to start mapping the area to see where flooding might happen.

They will be putting up barriers and have sandbags on hand to avoid the type of flooding that rolled off the burn scars of the Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains last year.

The fierce flooding wiped out a good portion of the Dixon's Apples orchard.

New Mexico Department of Homeland Security will also work with the National Weather Service to offer weather spotter classes.

"We are going to be training locals to spot weather patterns and also to be at vital points in the area where they can provide that advanced warning," said Nicholas Piatek with the New Mexico Department of Homeland Security.

Thirteen different agencies from the Army Corps of Engineers to the U.S. Forest Service are involved in the preparations.

On Friday Gov. Susana Martinez declared a state of emergency in Catron County where the fire is burning.
The declaration frees up state money to help pay to fight the fire and for flood preps.