Latest news with #CalfCanyonFire
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NM fire victims find recourse in court after delays, inaction by Congress, FEMA
The Cerro Pelado Fire seen from La Bajada Hill on April 29, 2022. (Photo by Shaun Griswold / Source NM) Those who suffered losses in prescribed burns gone awry in New Mexico's historic 2022 wildfire season are asking the courts to intervene, following what their lawyers say are failures by the federal government and Congress to make victims whole. In the spring of 2022, the Cerro Pelado Fire, the Hermits Peak Fire and the Calf Canyon Fire escaped containment lines to become runaway wildfires, all of them first ignited by the United States Forest Service as prescribed burns. The Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires merged in late April of that year and grew into the biggest fire in New Mexico history. In total, the fires burned nearly 400,000 acres, and left livelihoods and homes destroyed in their wake. Last week, thanks to a federal judge's intervention, a dozen victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire finally received full compensation, while lawyers representing Cerro Pelado Fire victims recently filed a lawsuit against the United States Forest Service, setting up a difficult battle in federal court. In the scar of New Mexico's largest wildfire, a legal battle is brewing over the cost of suffering The court has emerged as a last resort for compensation amid ongoing concerns about the distribution of $5.45 billion compensation fund for Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims Congress created in late 2022, along with an unsuccessful effort by members of New Mexico's congressional delegation to create a similar fund for Cerro Pelado Fire victims, lawyers for victims of both fires said in recent interviews. 'Here we are, three years later, after the devastation of the burn scar, my clients finally got their day in court,' Brian Colón, attorney with Singleton Schreiber, a firm representing Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire victims, told Source New Mexico. 'They got compensation awarded for the trespass that the federal government conducted when they were negligent three years ago.' Federal Judge James Browning took a day and a half last week to listen to testimony from a dozen victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire, who each described in detail the financial cost and also the emotional toll of the federally caused, 534-square-mile wildfire. One by one, Judge James Browning ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the fund Congress created, to award them thousands of dollars. The judge stepped in as part of a 'judicial review' allowed for in the act Congress passed when the parties cannot agree on an appropriate compensation amount. By the time the victims testified in court, FEMA had offered them low or sometimes no money at all for certain categories of losses. Notably, Browning ordered FEMA to provide the victims so-called noneconomic damages, akin to pain and suffering payments, for the emotional hardship the fire caused. FEMA had provided each of them a final payment offer listing '$0' for noneconomic damages. Even though last week's hearing involved only a dozen clients, the payments ranging between $9,000 and $330,000 represent a 'watershed' moment and a measure of closure in a legal battle pending for more than a year, Colón said. FEMA initially said the law Congress passed only allowed the agency to pay victims for losses that carry a price tag: burned homes, forgone business revenue and evacuation expenses, for example. By intervening to hear individual cases, Browning had to evaluate and quantify aspects of victims' experiences such as their proximity to the fire as it was burning; their anguish as they fled the blaze; and the extent of the 'nuisance' and 'trespass' the fire represented on their property. After federal judge's order, NM fire victims should seek to describe their anguish, lawyer says Late last year, in a separate, more-sweeping lawsuit, Browning ordered FEMA to begin awarding noneconomic damages, saying in a 99-page ruling that the damages are allowable under New Mexico state law and the law Congress passed. That order remains pending, and, as with the individual cases Browning ruled on last week, can still be appealed. FEMA and the United States Attorney's Office, which represents the agency in court, have declined to say whether they plan to appeal. While the victims' lawyers have 'no indication what FEMA's intentions are,' Colón noted that his firm has filed lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of named victims, each of whom could go before Browning in the coming months to seek whatever recourse the judge deems fit to award. 'We're gonna put as many of them in front of Judge Browning as he will permit, in whatever timetable he dictates,' Colón said. 'And we're optimistic that he is going to continue dedicating a very substantial amount of time to try and move these cases forward.' Browning announced in January he intends to retire in February 2026 after 22 years on the bench. While the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in noneconomic damages for all victims who seek them is still pending, the FEMA claims office Congress created is continuing to award compensation for other types of losses. According to the latest figures, FEMA has paid 16,966 claims totaling $2.35 billion for things like reforestation, business expenses, damaged property and losses local governments incurred responding to the fire. In enacting the Hermits Peak bill, members of New Mexico's congressional delegation have said they envisioned the accompanying claims office as a way to swiftly and fairly pay victims of the fire without the need for a costly and time-consuming court battle. A new lawsuit alleges a Forest Service 'cover up' denied people living within the Cerro Pelado Fire the same opportunity. In late April of this year, lawyers representing 20 plaintiffs, including individual property owners and the Jemez Pueblo and Jemez Mountains Electric Cooperative, filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service for the 46,000-acre fire in the Jemez Mountains, alleging that agency was negligent in failing to monitor the area for still-burning embers in the pile of thinned trees and brush it ignited after the snowpack had melted. The lawsuit also accuses the Forest Service of covering up its failure to monitor the pile by issuing an initial investigation determining the cause of the fire to be 'inconclusive.' Moreover, the lawsuit says, the Forest Service only ordered a second investigation that ultimately concluded the wildfire had begun as a 'holdover' after a 'whistleblower' and others raised issue with its original determination. NM federal delegation works to get new compensation pot for Cerro Pelado Fire victims 'The [Forest Service's] cover-up of the actual cause and origin of the wildfire resulted in the victims of the fire being left out of the Hermit's Peak Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act,' the lawsuit alleges. A spokesperson for the Forest Service did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit Monday afternoon from Source New Mexico. Chris Bauman, the plaintiffs' lawyer with B&D Law Offices, told Source New Mexico on Monday that even after New Mexico Democrats U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez and U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján sponsored the Cerro Pelado Fire Assistance Act, he never thought the separate bill had much of a chance of delivering compensation like the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act did. 'We were told by people that know more about how things work in Washington that it was a long shot,' he said. 'So really we didn't have much expectation, but obviously we were hopeful.' Winning a lawsuit against the federal government is difficult, Bauman said, due to the 'discretionary function' exemption to the Federal Tort Claims Act. That exemption prohibits the federal government from being liable if employees acted within the scope of their duties during a harmful act. Bauman's firm needs to prove that the Forest Service employees who lit the fire in January violated a mandatory policy when they failed to notice that the pile of debris they had lit smoldered undetected for months until catching a huge wind gust on April 22, 2022. According to the lawsuit, the burn plan laying out the series of pile burns in the area requires continuous monitoring, especially after the snowpack disappears. 'So that's what we've tried to highlight in our complaint, is that there were multiple instances where they were required to do things under the burn plan and failed to do so,' he said. Feds try to skirt responsibility in lawsuit for people who died after state's biggest wildfire It's not clear how much damage the fire caused, in terms of dollars, Bauman said, though he acknowledged it's far less than the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire. Still, he said, the victims' only recourse is a lawsuit with a high bar to clear. 'The government will probably file the motion to dismiss, claiming lack of jurisdiction because of the discretionary function defense. We anticipate that will be sort of the first challenge to our case,' he said. 'Hopefully we'll survive that.' Once the information had emerged that the Cerro Pelado Fire had escaped from a pile burn, the state's congressional delegation in October 2023 introduced legislation similar to the Hermits Peak bill to compensate victims. It's been stalled ever since. Leger Fernandez told Source New Mexico on Monday in an emailed statement that she has not given up on Congress passing the Cerro Pelado Fire Assistance Act and fully compensating those victims like the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire Act aims to do. 'We continue to push for the Cerro Pelado Fire Assistance Act because the communities harmed by that fire deserve justice—just like the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon survivors,' she said. 'When Democrats were in the majority, we were able to pass the Hermits Peak legislation because we had leadership in the House, Senate, and White House that prioritized disaster relief. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case.' Republicans have refused to advance the Cerro Pelado bill 'despite repeated efforts,' she said. She also cited the recent firing of the FEMA administrator a day after he testified that FEMA should still exist. 'It's clear that the Trump White House isn't focused on helping disaster survivors,' she said. 'We're not giving up. We'll keep fighting to get Cerro Pelado survivors the compensation they deserve.'
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Las Vegas, N.M., residents, businesses grapple with PNM's public safety power shutoff
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — The beam of a heavy-duty DeWalt flashlight swept across the shelves of the Big R store as Michael Velarde searched for a Sharpie marker to buy. Otherwise, the store was dark Thursday, even at 2:30 p.m. Public Service Company of New Mexico had cut the power to the store as part of a public safety outage that affected some 2,300 of its customers in the western area of Las Vegas, N.M., as high winds began blowing through Northern New Mexico. Still, the store remained open and customers trickled in, met by employees wearing headlamps. Initiated at 11:30 a.m., the PNM shutoff was necessary, the electric utility said, to reduce the risk of fire danger amid high winds. Gusts caused other power outages around the state and drove a brushfire that had ignited Thursday afternoon on Bureau of Indian Affairs land west of Bosque Farms. George Ducker of the New Mexico Forestry Division sent a news release Thursday evening about the fast-moving Rio Grande Fire, which had burned several structures and led to evacuations. The fire was estimated at about 150 acres but was growing in red-flag conditions. 'This is becoming the norm' The Las Vegas outage marked PNM's first planned power shutoff in wildfire weather following previous warnings of outages in Santa Fe, the East Mountains near Albuquerque and other areas of the state during a dry spring with days of heavy gusts. 041725_MS_Las Vegas Power_003.JPG Traffic waits a temporary stop sign at the intersection of Mills Avenue and Eighth Street in Las Vegas during a public safety power shutoff Thursday. "It's in response to fire danger throughout the West … and the need to do our part to prevent these catastrophes," said Jeff Buell, a spokesperson for PNM, the largest electric utility in the state. "It is a last-resort step that we take after pretty agonizing deliberations." He estimated power would be restored as early as 3 a.m. Friday. But PNM said in a morning news release customers in the outage area should expect it "to last overnight and up to 48 hours depending on fire conditions and potential damage caused to the system by high winds." The shutoff comes as some electric utilities in Western states, such as California, have at times resorted to enacting blackouts in times when fire risk is high. New Mexico is another state that has seen devastating and costly wildfires in recent years. The decision to shut off the power is one that promises to draw the ire of residents concerned about food in refrigerators souring, among other things, while waiting for service to be restored. But Las Vegas residents perhaps have a unique understanding of fire risk. The Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire, the worst blaze in New Mexico's recorded history, started in 2022 due to a pair of botched federal prescribed burns, leaving thousands of people displaced while destroying hundreds of homes. "I've never heard of that before in my entire life, but I understand their concern," Velarde said of PNM's power shutdown. "They don't want the city to catch fire again." The National Weather Service in Albuquerque had warned of extreme fire conditions Thursday due to a combination of prolonged and increasing drought across the state, high temperatures and heavy wind gusts — part of a pattern of extreme conditions as global climate change intensifies. Drought map According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 98% of New Mexico is now in some level of drought, with the severity of conditions inching upward. Over 80% of the state is in at least severe drought and a third in extreme drought, including northern Santa Fe County, half of Rio Arriba County and swaths of Taos and Sandoval counties, as well as a large area of southwestern New Mexico. Las Vegas Mayor David Romero noted this is becoming a reality in parts of the Southwest where wildfire concerns run high. It's something the city needs to prepare for, he said. "In general, I think this is something, moving forward, the city and also the community are going to have to be prepared for things like this," Romero said. "Nationwide and here within the state, this is becoming the norm within power companies to prevent fires and fires in general." Windy day in Las Vegas Heavy gusts were whipping around signposts as people walked through a business district of the San Miguel County town with their heads lowered. With dust in the air impacting visibility outside of town, Romero said Thursday marked a very strong wind event. "Of course, it's an inconvenience. That's for sure," Romero said. "But you have to understand: Some of these measures that they're taking, they're precautionary, and we did experience the fires." Velarde said he felt the utility's decision to shut off power was something of a double-edged sword for residents and businesses in Las Vegas. "They are taking precautionary measures," he said. "But what about the people that are going to lose all their food? That's a travesty, especially if you are low-income." At the corner of Mills and Eighth streets, traffic lights were dark as drivers approached with uncertainty. Nearby, the doors of a Dollar General were closed; a handmade sign gave the reason: Power outage. "Sorry for the inconvenience; have a wonderful day," the sign said. Dollar General A Dollar General Store in Las Vegas, N.M., was closed Thursday due to a public safety power shutoff initiated by Public Service Company of New Mexico to reduce the threat of wildfire amid high winds. Along with business closures, the power shutdown prompted Luna Community College to close for the afternoon, Facilities Director Matthew Griego said. "We don't have the infrastructure in place for the backup [power] right now," he said. However, New Mexico Highlands University and the local public schools appeared to continue operating throughout the day. "It's business as usual until we hear something from PNM," Highlands spokesperson David Lepre said. The state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said in a statement it was prepared to respond to any requests for help from Las Vegas. "We have helped the local emergency manager identify critical infrastructure that might be impacted and a shelter location in case that becomes a need. We're in constant communication with the local officials and PNM to monitor the situation," the statement said. When will power return? PNM's outage map showed about 1,000 customers in the Belen area, south of Albuquerque, had no service due to power line issues. Other equipment issues left about 1,300 people without power in a southeastern portion of Albuquerque. The Las Vegas shutoff would remain in place "until the extreme weather conditions have passed, and the risk of a wildfire has been reduced," the utility said in a news release Thursday morning. "Current forecasts predict that the weather event will subside by 8 p.m." 041725_MS_Las Vegas Power_002.JPG Jason Lassell, manager of the Big R store in Las Vegas, fills a generator with gasoline during a planned power outage Thursday. Buell said around 5:30 p.m. PNM crews were "standing by," meaning groups of workers were waiting for wildfire conditions to subside before patrolling the power lines and inspecting every inch of the deenergized system to ensure there were no tree limbs that had fallen or "any material caught in the lines or any damage to the lines." "This process will probably take several hours," Buell said. "It's a lengthy process, particularly because it will be mostly during the dark." PNM noted it has "20 miles of lines and more than 800 poles and equipment that must be patrolled, mostly on foot, and possibly repaired" in the Las Vegas area. "This could take an extended amount of time, and PNM is urging customers to prepare to be without power overnight." Staff writers Nicholas Gilmore and Esteban Candelaria contributed to this report
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Rising costs, repeated flooding pose challenges as residents rebuild and restore
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — General contractor Sean Medrano was out of the office at NorthEast Construction for three months in 2022. Previously a firefighter for the State Forestry Division, Medrano was called to help fight the nearby Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire — caused by two federal prescribed burns that broke containment, one in the mountains northwest of Las Vegas that was swept out of control by heavy winds April 6, 2022, and the second caused by a pile burn left smoldering under snowpack. High winds spread both fires until they merged into a massive blaze, scorching more than 340,000 acres. "I've been on fires like that before, just never in our hometown," said Medrano, a Las Vegas resident. "Never hit home. It was a different feeling." Before the fire struck three years ago, the majority of Medrano's custom home projects were out of state, he said. But business has since shifted, and he's doing more construction in Las Vegas, where many residents are trying to rebuild homes and businesses damaged by the wildfire and torrential floods that followed. There have been challenges, including the ongoing threat of floodwaters. Properties are pummeled again and again. Builders are in scarce supply, and costs have continued to rise. Some residents lost critical records in the fire. Previously, NorthEast Construction would send a truck twice a month to Albuquerque to pick up supplies; it now has to send trucks one or twice per week because of challenges getting supplies locally. City water system issues also have created setbacks, said Medrano, who wants to see the community grow. After the fire, the Rio Gallina — a major water source for Las Vegas — was polluted with ash and soot as floodwaters swept over the burn scar. Last summer, flooding in Las Vegas degraded the water quality to the point at which the water treatment plant couldn't keep up. Businesses had to shut down as officials urged water conservation. Millions of dollars in federal funding have been allocated to modernize the city's water system. "I'm gonna keep my head up, and I'm going to push forward and just kind of dig my feet in and invest in the community," Medrano said. "... Hopefully, we can grow and develop and, you know, bring some kind of businesses in and get people coming back." Still battling floods Flooding hasn't ended in the immense burn scar, which stretches for hundreds of square miles across the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. And as floodwaters repeatedly damage properties around Las Vegas, the work doesn't stop for builders. Gary David Jordan, an operations manager for NorthEast Construction, said every time it rains, one of his client's bridges gets plugged with debris. His own home has been impacted by the compounding disasters, as well. "I'm not going to do anymore work," Jordan said. "I don't have enough money to do more work." Seeing the damage to the forest also has been disheartening, Jordan said, adding he gets worried every time high winds are in the forecast. "I have to look at that every single day," Jordan said of the scorched terrain. "My grandkids will never see the beauty of that property, ever." Choosing a modular home Kayt C. Peck wants to continue living on her property in Rociada, a small mountain community northwest of Las Vegas where she has lived for more than 20 years. "That's home," said Peck, a writer who has published several novels. A message on a website for her books describes a dire situation: "I am temporarily unable to fulfill book orders," the post says. "My home and my entire book inventory were destroyed on April 22, 2022 when the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire overran the beautiful New Mexico village where I live." Still, the message is optimistic: "This is a temporary setback. I will rebuild both my book inventory and my life." Peck spent months couch surfing before buying a travel trailer. She then explored the possibility of rebuilding her home with a contractor, but they ran into snags: Some of her important documents burned in the fire, making it difficult to get a building permit. Instead, she's planning to buy a modular home. "As much as I hate to do so," Peck said, "it's going to take so long to get a stick house done that I went to go with a modular home." It's a choice shared by many whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the fire or subsequent floodwaters. Geri Herrera, another Rociada resident who operates a farm with her husband in the community, is waiting for a modular home to arrive. Art Vigil, who lives near Hermits Peak, chose to go modular because finding an available contractor was difficult. For now, Peck is fixing up a single-wide mobile home using insurance compensation. After she has a new home on the property, she plans to rent out the unit. She sees opportunity for new businesses to emerge, especially in the housing market. Hundreds of properties in Las Vegas could be renovated, keeping money in the area increasing housing stock, Peck said. The area lost environmental value, she said, noting people who once earned income off the land are in need of other employment. "They don't have the subsistence income anymore," Peck said. "They can be a source to renovate those 400 homes, which would directly benefit the housing needs in the community and provide income ... to compensate for what they've lost." Protecting the watershed Lea Knutson, executive director of the Hermit's Peak Watershed Alliance, and her family were among the first to evacuate from Las Dispensas, a mountain community in the burn scar. For the past three years, contractors and staffers with the alliance have been working to build structures to mitigate flooding, slowing the flow of water and doing reseeding projects. Knutson, an ecologist, founded the alliance 15 years ago when she realized rivers in the area were vulnerable to flooding and wildfire. Before the fire, the organization had only four employees. Immediately after the fire, she knew it would need to grow. It wasn't easy. "It was very clear that there weren't enough people to do watershed restoration work in the state of New Mexico — not just locally, but everywhere," Knutson said. "There's a relatively small handful of contractors that know how to do this work and are trusted." In the first year after the fire, the alliance hired around 15 new people, including interns from New Mexico Highlands University and the Youth Conservation Corps. Workers had to be quickly trained to meet the needs. Initially, many landowners were hesitant to work on their property, Knutson said, worrying it could affect their FEMA claims. Funding for the critical work also has been a barrier. "It's difficult, you know; you've got to write the proposals, and you have to meet all of the requirements," she said. "And each funding source has a very specific agenda attached to it, and so it's a little tricky to match a funding source up to the kind of work that we have to do." The fire exacerbated — and uncovered — existing issues with rivers. Especially after Las Vegas became plagued with water quality issues, threats to the watershed became "so evident you couldn't ignore," Knutson said. "What happened way up in the mountains really does impact what comes out of our faucet," she said. "We're understanding that much more clearly." Watching prices rise Camilo Gomez bought an undeveloped property in Las Vegas in 1998 to build a second home. Even before the fire, it was difficult to find a builder in the area who would work with prefabricated panels, the Santa Fe resident said. The home was completed in January. After the fire, Gomez saw prices increase. Floods across the burn scar swept away a steel bridge crossing a waterway near his home, temporarily preventing construction. After a temporary bridge was installed, it still took a while to start construction, he said, because contractors were busy. "A lot of these were people that have lost their home, so they didn't have a place to live," Gomez said. "We were looking for a second home, so it doesn't put us on the top of the queue for building priorities." He'd like to put in a permanent bridge, but has seen price estimates triple over the past two years. Across the board, he said, prices have increased around 15% to 20%. The fire and subsequent floods also shifted his perspective on building his home — hundred-year floods have become almost regular occurrences. He's concerned about leaving enough clearance around the house and taking measures to mitigate flooding, including removing the temporary bridge before the snow melts this year. "Before, it was kind of in the back of our mind," Gomez said of protecting his home against fire, "but it wasn't something we were expecting to see anytime soon."
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
'I don't think I can go back': Many burn scar residents choose not to return
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Three generations of Jon Carleton's family have lived on a property near Mineral Hill, a community in the mountains northwest of Las Vegas. As a kid, Carleton moved around a lot. But every summer and for Christmas vacation, he and his cousins would meet in San Miguel County. He bought the property near Mineral Hill from his uncle in 2012. He was living there with his 78-year-old mother 10 years later when the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire destroyed his home, a recreational vehicle and several other buildings on the property. He bought two RVs so he and his mother could continue living in the area after the wildfire. But eventually, his mother moved to Albuquerque. "Every time she'd go outside, she just started crying," Carleton said. "It was too much for her, and, I mean, it's almost too much for me. But with my dogs, I don't really have anywhere else to go." Carleton's struggle to stay in a Northern New Mexico community devastated by the fire in the spring of 2022 — and floodwaters that continue to strike the area in the aftermath — is a common story across the more than 530-square-mile Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon burn scar. Many residents in San Miguel and Mora counties told The New Mexican accounts of friends, neighbors and acquaintances who are packing up and leaving in the wake of the disaster. While Santa Fe County and the state as a whole saw a modest population increase between 2020 and 2024, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, San Miguel and Mora counties saw their populations drop. The decrease might seem small — around a 3% for the two counties — but represents almost 900 people lost. Two years ago, when Vicki Garland left Sapello, north of Las Vegas, she thought her move to Sandia Park was temporary. She planned to rebuild on her property after receiving compensation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That's taken longer than expected. She's not sure Sandia Park is where she'd like to stay, but she now doubts whether she'll return to San Miguel County. "The flooding and the despair ... I would go back there, and it just felt sad," Garland said. "The whole energy of it was not buoyant at all; it was depressed." She added, "I don't think I can go back." It's not just the "ghost town" feeling of the area, Garland said. She was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. A friend who lives with her also has experienced several health problems. It took just over four minutes for an EMS crew to arrive at their Sandia Park home during a medical emergency. In Sapello, Garland said, it would take 25 minutes to get to the nearest hospital in Las Vegas — and even then, she noted, her friend likely would have been airlifted to Santa Fe. Being closer to health care services is an unexpected blessing, Garland said. During the three years since the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire ignited April 6, 2022, she's felt angry — at the U.S. Forest Service, which conducted two prescribed burns in the mountains near Las Vegas that went awry, sparking the blaze, and at FEMA, which many residents have complained took too long to provide compensation for their losses. Lately, however, she's been choosing to focus on the good: her garden, her pets, spring tulips peeking up out of the earth. She still yearns for a new couch: a modular sectional, with a chaise on one side and an ottoman on the other. Her daughter is encouraging her to go for a sensible brown or gray, to conceal the pet hair — Garland has two dogs and one cat — but she dreams of a bright aqua blue. "Every single day we're sad, and every single day we're maybe a little less miserable than we were two years ago," she said. Cyn Palmer is hanging onto her home in lower Rociada, in the center of the burn scar, she said. But the fear of future disasters has made her consider leaving the community she loves. "I love Rociada Valley," Palmer said. "[It] is this beautiful, unique place full of really interesting people, incredible history. The people there are resilient and strong, and I've been impressed with how well they tried to take care of each other for the past three years." She moved to the area in 2019. A retired natural resources manager, she has seen major changes to the ecosystem since the fire. "Things will never be the same," Palmer said. The fire "unquestionably" diminished the value of her townhome, she said, which she had paid off just a year before the fire. She believes the damage would make it more difficult to sell her home and move to a place with a lower risk of fires and floods. Palmer is still working through the FEMA claims process; living with illness and facing a "mountain of paperwork" has been difficult, and she's growing frustrated. She has been staying in Albuquerque recently. Mold from flooding has contaminated her home, and if she stays there too long she starts experiencing sinus problems, headaches, nosebleeds and digestive issues. The village also has changed. The Moosehead Bar and Restaurant, where she worked as a bartender before the fire, burned down. Power outages and water shutoffs are frequent after the fire. "I'd only been there five years, and yet I agonize over whether or not I would want to stay," Palmer said. "My home literally sits square in the middle of a 500-square-mile flood zone, and it's actually one of the greatest fire danger areas in the whole state now."
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
FEMA claims process drags on for victims long after wildfire
Fast-acting firefighters cut a line around Samuel Aragon's ancestral home as the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire blazed around it three years ago, just in time to save the nearly 200-year-old structure from destruction. His winery, Las Nueve Niñas — named after his nine granddaughters and located above 7,000 feet in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains between Mora and Angel Fire — was also spared. He and his wife, Elisa Aragon, are grateful to be alive. But their lives have been inextricably changed by the wildfire and subsequent floods, which sent 10-foot-high walls of water raging down the arroyo past their home and through their outbuildings, cutting them off from hungry livestock on the other side. "We had flooding like we had never seen in our lifetime," said Samuel Aragon, who at 81 has lived the majority of his life in the same adobe home where he was born. The Aragons are among more than 1,000 people who have filed lawsuits over the Federal Emergency Management Agency's pace of providing compensation for losses tied to the massive wildfire — the largest in New Mexico's recorded history — and the floodwaters that struck in the fire's aftermath. The federal government accepted blame for the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon blaze — which ignited from two separate U.S. Forest Service-conducted burns gone awry in April 2022 — and Congress approved a total of nearly $5.5 billion for victims, vowing full compensation for a wide range of losses. 111822_JG_FEMA4.jpg (copy) (copy) Angela Gladwell with the Federal Emergency Management Agency speaks about the claims process to an audience full of attorneys and victims of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire in Las Vegas, N.M., in November 2022. FEMA says it has paid out more than $2 billion so far for over 15,000 claims, with a March 14 deadline to file an initial claim. But many residents are still waiting for funds. Among them are the Aragons. 'We've done everything' With no trees left in the surrounding watershed to slow it down, waves of water washed out roadways, tore down fences and swept away a stone wall Samuel Aragon had spent nine years building by hand. The floodwaters changed how the couple felt about rain. "Now we start to get anxiety when the monsoon season comes," Elisa Aragon said, recounting how she would lie awake in bed, listening to the rumbling sound of water moving massive boulders down the drainage next to their home. They've since moved to higher ground, in a modular home on another piece of property nearby. They spend each day rebuilding their lives — no thanks, they say, to the federal government, which still hasn't settled the bulk of their damage claims. The couple said they initially planned to file claims with FEMA to obtain compensation for damages from the government-caused fire themselves. But they opted to seek legal assistance after encountering a complicated and costly system that would have required them to quickly complete a seemingly unsurmountable amount of work to prove their damages. Facing the prospect of having to secure the help of experts in high demand to help them prove the value of their lost trees, soil and fences, or to complete repairs within the short time frame required for reimbursement, they said, they decided to hire lawyers from the Singleton Schreiber law firm to help them navigate the process. Still, they wait. "We have filed our notice of loss and proof of loss," Elisa Aragon said. "We've done everything we can do. … I don't know why it's taking so long." 'Retraumatized' by FEMA failures Singleton Schreiber managing partner and former State Auditor Brian Colón said the Aragons are among 1,200 people the law firm has helped file their claims, many of whom are waiting to be compensated due to what he says is FEMA's failure to develop a comprehensive system for distributing money set aside for fire victims. "The problem is FEMA systems and staffing has failed miserably. … In fact, the victims of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire have literally been retraumatized by FEMA's process and its failures," Colón said. 111822_JG_FEMA1.jpg (copy) Danielle M. Lucero, a San Miguel firefighter, speaks at a public meeting in November 2022 for victims of the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon Fire to meet with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. Not processing claims within 180 days, as required by the federal Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act, refusing to compensate victims for noneconomic damages — such as emotional distress — and not paying claims within 30 days are just some of the ways FEMA has failed, Colón said. A U.S. district judge ruled in December noneconomic damages were eligible for compensation under the law. FEMA has filed a motion seeking clarification on that opinion, however, according to a spokesperson. "Once the Court issues a ruling on that motion, FEMA will be in a position to evaluate its position on noneconomic damages and determine whether there is a path forward to provide compensation or whether it will appeal the ruling," External Affairs Officer Dianna Segura wrote in an email Friday. Colón said his firm has filed dozens of lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of claimants to force the government to comply with the rules. "There are a substantial number of families still hurting right now, and it doesn't seem the federal government has increased its urgency to put these families in a position to move on with their lives," Colón said. "We're not going to let up. We are going to file more lawsuits until the federal government rightfully compensates these victims," he added. Segura disputed Colón's characterization of the agency's performance, writing it's "not true." "The Claims Office is proud of the more than $2 billion dollars we have compensated Northern New Mexicans since March of 2023 when our Claims Office began its work to compensate those who suffered losses due to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire and cascading events," she wrote. As of Friday, about 75% — or 15,496 of 20,644 of the claims filed — have been paid out, according to Segura. "Within six months of the signing of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Act, when FEMA began management of compensation requests from Northern New Mexicans, we opened offices and hired staff," she said. "We have consistently added staff over the last two years, until the recent hiring freeze across federal agencies, which includes the Claims Office." Some of the claims have been slowed by residents' inability to obtain documentation of ownership, "which has put another strain on the process," Segura said in an interview Friday. For example, in some cases residents were living in homes that had been gifted to them by a family member years prior without documentation. Recognizing many in the community didn't know or understand how to go about getting this paperwork, FEMA offices have hosted workshops and equipped advocates to educate claimants on that issue. "We recognize this has been a long process," Segura said.
