LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Instead of shooting fireworks from home, a team of firefighters from across Arkansas is spending Independence Day in New Mexico.
Arkansas Task Force 1 arrived in Ruidoso, New Mexico, on Saturday, hours after water rose to eight or nine feet in some spots according to village officials. The flooding prompted nearly 80 swift water rescues in two days.
New Mexico heavy rain and flash flooding prompt mandatory evacuations
The force is trained and equipped to respond to various search and rescue situations, usually on the front lines of in-state disaster recovery. However, for the fourth time since they were founded in 2010, they are responding to another state.
“We’ve been to Texas on a hurricane, Florida on a hurricane, Louisiana hurricane and now the swift water rescues in New Mexico,” Andy Traffanstedt said.
Traffanstedt is the Program Manager for the task force. He stays in Arkansas to ensure the team has all the resources it needs. Everyone on the team has another job when they are not deployed. Traffansted is the director of the Pulaski County Office of Emergency Management.