New Mexico mayor addresses deadly flooding

Well, and I can imagine that you're looking at those losses, those projected fiscal losses. You're looking at what happened in the past, but also, in the days ahead, how to prepare people to make preparations and save lives. What are you looking at over the next few days, as you keep people alert and ready to move? Well, I can tell you we're highly motivated after losing the three lives that we did lose. We're planning. We're constantly working here at the EOC, the Emergency Operations Center here in Ruidoso, keeping our eye on the weather, working with the National Weather Service to let people know, the public know all the alert systems that we have are stacked on top of one another, to make sure that people are alerted to the fact that there is weather. And we are in our just typical monsoon season. That's what that we're looking at here. This last event that happened Tuesday was 3 and 1/2 inches of rain that hit directly on the burn scar. And that is what the difference is. When you have forests that are burned or soil that has burned so intensely that it becomes hydrophobic, it won't take on any water. It just runs right down the mountain on the elevation because we are surrounded by mountains. And so this is what you see, the aftermath. And the aftermath is addressed by help that is on the way. We've covered the stories of helpers who are coming in from other states. Talk to me about that help because help takes money. What kind of money are you needing? What type of money are you receiving, not only from the state level, but also from the feds? Well, I'm glad that you asked. We just had a press release here with the governor. She was here. Several of our Congress people were here. They had been in session, and our senators will be here tomorrow from Washington, DC. We did talk to Secretary Noem last night on some funding to go ahead and get released. And usually, when you're dealing with FEMA, the money is not frontloaded. And so in this case, we're being sent a little bit of money that we were supposed to receive over the fire last year. So we've been promised by the state that they are standing in front of us, and they have been over this last year. And so funding is coming. We have contractors on the ground. We have people ready to go ahead and get into the desilting. But most of all, we want to make sure that our folks are safe, that we are a tourist-based economy, and we want to make sure that our folks are safe, that the visitors in the community are safe. It's just a rough time right now in Ruidoso. This is the peak of our earnings season for our businesses. So many of them now are out of business, or their businesses are going to be highly impacted, which means their employees, their families are impacted. And so it's just a difficult time all the way around.

I've watched you on television for several days now, and I've seen the weight of this, especially when you talk about the loss of life and property there. Yes.

And our thoughts are with you, Mayor. It's a difficult job. So also the first responders, our best to them, the men and women who are out there day in and day out. We see you. We salute you on CBS News. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you for having us on. I appreciate it.

It's an honor to speak to you. Thank you. Our thoughts are with your people.