Deadline for FEMA aid extended for Salt Fork and South fires, amid floods and local concerns

A screenshot of a webcam showing downtown Ruidoso around 8:30 p.m. on June 17 as the fire looms and drivers flee. (Photo Courtesy Village of Ruidoso)

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has extended the application deadline for those who suffered losses in the South Fork and Salt fires to Oct. 19, an extension that comes as floods continue to threaten homes of those living in and around the burn scar.

The deadline was going to be Monday until FEMA announced the extension late Friday. A spokesperson said the extension came thanks to a request from Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Some local residents, including Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford, said the deadline was passing so quickly that many survivors of the ongoing disaster could be left without vital help.

Crawford said that he is beginning to see movement and money flowing for the recovery, but he doesn’t think people in his town are feeling the help yet. He’s regularly asked for Ruidoso residents to call in on a local radio show to let him know if they received any federal aid and how the process went, and he said no one has responded so far.

“We want to see actual money in people’s hands,” he told Source New Mexico on Friday, before the deadline extension was announced. “I just need verification to ease my own troubled mind on these things.”

As of Aug. 17, FEMA has provided a little more than $5.5 million in assistance to 509 households, according to the latest totals on a FEMA website. That includes about $3.25 million in housing assistance, plus about $2.25 million to cover things like transportation, medical expenses and replacing lost household items.

FEMA trailers on their way to Ruidoso; at least 856 homes lost

After President Joe Biden declared a federal disaster on June 2, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began offering assistance to individuals and households affected by the disaster as long as they applied by Aug. 19.

The assistance is meant to provide immediate, temporary aid to those without adequate insurance, and total assistance is limited under federal law to about $43,000, even for those whose primary residences were completely destroyed.

People who apply by the deadline can be eligible for other possible aid, including low-interest disaster loans from the Small Business Administration, as well as housing assistance in the form of rent assistance or temporary trailers and mobile homes. The FEMA temporary housing has yet to arrive.

Crawford said a Monday deadline would make even less sense amid continued floods falling on the burn scar that cause additional damage and leave even more people in need.

Woman trapped in tree, bridge destroyed, landspout spotted in ‘extreme’ Ruidoso burn scar flooding

“Some people don’t even realize they have damage,” Crawford  said. “And the incident period is not going to be over by the 19th. It needs to at least extend past the expected monsoon time.”

The typical North American monsoon season lasts through September. A recent National Weather Service monsoon forecast for New Mexico predicted average to above-average precipitation in August and September in New Mexico.

After the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire in spring 2022, survivors could apply for individual assistance until Oct. 7 of that year, more than six months after the fire began. The deadline was extended at least once.

An Aug. 19 deadline means survivors of the South Fork and Salt fires would have meant people had about three months to apply for aid, including temporary housing

Crawford’s office shared correspondence with FEMA officials showing that, as of Aug. 1, 126 households were deemed eligible for FEMA trailers or mobile homes. Those eligible are generally people whose uninsured primary residence was destroyed or sustained severe damage.

Of those households, 51 told FEMA they need housing immediately. Sixty-four others told FEMA they’d found another housing resource. In an email to Crawford’s office, FEMA acknowledged that more people would likely need temporary housing from the federal agency.

Crawford said he’d received assurances from FEMA that the trailers and mobile homes for the survivors hit hardest by the disaster are “on their way.”