Lincoln County residents allowed back home starting Saturday

Luisa Barrios
·2 min read
Lincoln County residents allowed back home starting Saturday

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – Some Lincoln County residents will be allowed to return to their homes starting at 5 p.m. Saturday, June 22.

Lincoln County authorities said residents of Ranches of Sonterra 1, 2 and 3, Rancho Ruidoso Valley Estates and Enchanted Forest are now allowed to return as in June 22.

Full-time residents will be allowed to go back starting at 8 a.m. on Sunday, June 23 to the following areas: Ruidoso Downs, Ruidoso Downs to El Valle Loop, Sierra Vista, Sun Valley and Villa Madonna.

The Village of Ruidoso (VOR) also announced in a Facebook post that the Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford, along with village council members, have decided to allow full-time residents back into Ruidoso at 8 a.m. on Monday, June 24.

As we previously reported, the New Mexico State Forestry Division is reporting progress in containing the South Fork Fire and the Salt Fire burning near Ruidoso, New Mexico, and the Mescalero Apache reservation.

Containment progress reported in Ruidoso fires

The Village of Ruidoso provided the following points to take into consideration about the re-entry:

  1. Re-entry will be for local, full-time residents only at this time.

  2. The VOR is asking that second homeowners and tourists refrain from coming to Ruidoso to give residents time to get back to their properties and survey any needs or damages.

  3. Please bring at least a week’s worth of food and drinking water as grocery stores are not operating at full capacity.

  4. Due to the events of the past week, you may arrive to find that your home has no gas, no electricity and no water. If your home has no power, your refrigerator will not be working. You can check the outage maps at PNM.com and ZNGC.com

  5. There is no childcare available.

  6. If you have breathing issues including asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), you may find that you cannot tolerate the ash, smoke and soot that are in the air.

  7. There is currently a Boil Water Advisory in place which is normal after a natural disaster. If any water systems are found to be compromised, there is the possibility for a mandatory Boil Water Order.

Resources, support from Ruidoso’s neighboring communities continue to come in

“We hope that you will help us make this process smooth. Please remember that we are here to help you, and at the same time, we want to ensure your safety and the safety of everyone’s property,” read the Facebook post.

Lincoln County also says that second homeowners and tourists should refrain from coming to the area to allow full-time residents to return.

Any questions can be directed to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) phone bank at (575) 258-6900 or more information can be found on the VOR website at www.Ruidoso-NM.gov.

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