Hatch’s Mayor reflects on devastation caused by Storm 2006

It has been 10 years since Storm 2006 hit the borderland. One of the hardest hit communities was the Village of Hatch in Dona Ana County.

It was devastated August 15th, 2006.

“You get so emotional. I still do. You get so emotional just seeing that all your hard work, that you’ve done for years and years. Where are you gonna be. Where are you gonna end up?” Lifelong resident Bertha Torres said.

Torres has lived in Hatch for more than 30 years. The flooding was the worst she’s ever seen. “In an instant, you left in the morning everything was fine and this was like 3 or 4 in the afternoon,” Torres said.

Within moments that day, the entire village was underwater. Buildings, streets and cars were damaged. Families were evacuated from their homes and took shelter at Hatch High School.

The water from the storm came from the mountains and into Las Plazitas Arroyo, but there was a lot of buildup of debris and silt near the underpass. Nunez says when the water came, it brought with it a lot of debris from the mountains causing the water to rise.

The arroyo breached, sending the water straight to the Village of Hatch, hitting homes and businesses. Inside Los Caballos Apartment Complex, at least three to four feet of Sheetrock was removed from the walls where the waters rose.

The waters then raged through downtown Hatch where many found themselves waist deep in the flood. The streets are back to normal now, buildings and homes have since been rebuilt.

Hatch Mayor Andy Nunez says the floods caused several millions of dollars in damage. It took months and in some cases, years before many homes were okay. Some families left and never came back. Those like Torres, however, say there was no other option.

“You see where other devastation is hit. Mississippi, Oklahoma and their homes get destroyed and you always think to yourself, why would they rebuild? Get out of there. Tornadoes are going to come back the next year. And you never understand that. When it happened to us, I understood. I said this is home. This is where I grew up, my kids were raised here. It’s home,” Torres said.

Mayor Nunez says the village continually cleans the arroyo and bridges have been built to prevent another flood from happening.