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FEMA reverses course on ‘safe-to-occupy’ home after pressure. But what about everyone else?
After initial denials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reversed course and will provide the maximum in disaster aid to a family whose house was the first destroyed by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire. The agency previously provided four reasons to deny aid to Kathryn Mahan and her family for their destroyed home in Las Dispensas. […]
Roads flooded, barn damaged, but not ‘worst-case scenario’ yet in the burn scar, reports indicate
The National Weather Service got at least seven reports of flooding over the weekend in the scar of the biggest fire in state history. Residents of northern New Mexico have been watching rain clouds with a sense of dread since the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon wildfire burned more than 340,000 acres of the Santa Fe National […]
NM legal aid attorney: FEMA system ‘broken,’ but don’t give up
A lawyer overseeing a slew of damage claims from the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire said the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s aid process needs an overhaul. Michelle Garcia, an attorney with New Mexico Legal Aid, encouraged those seeking FEMA relief to reach out for legal help to a coalition of lawyers who are helping with claims. […]
FEMA gave 4 reasons for denying aid to an NM family who lost their home. All were wrong.
Less than a week after a prescribed burn escaped from a crew near Hermits Peak, the wildfire ripped across an area about four miles northeast and destroyed the home Kathryn Mahan and her husband built in 2015 and have lived in since. On April 12, the 400-square-foot home was reduced to a pile of ash […]
A prescription for disaster
More than 11 weeks after a prescribed burn escaped containment lines 12 miles north of Las Vegas, the public is finally learning more about what went wrong to cause the biggest fire in New Mexico history. In the meantime: Thousands evacuated, homes and livelihoods destroyed, a water supply imperiled, a wilderness reduced to ash. Over […]
Major mistakes the Forest Service made in starting biggest fire in New Mexico history
A short-staffed fire crew lit a fire in a megadrought while underestimating the complexity of the climate and the value of what could be lost, review shows.
Leger Fernandez: Forest Service ‘undervalued’ NM region where prescribed burn was ignited
The Forest Service’s first big error when it came to a recent escaped prescribed burn in Northern New Mexico was deeming the area where the agency ignited the fire to have only “moderate” value, U.S. Rep Teresa Leger Fernandez told Source New Mexico. The detail was included in an 85-page report released Tuesday, a review […]
NM reaches $32M settlement for 2015 Gold King Mine spill that turned the Animas River yellow
State officials on Thursday gathered in Farmington to announce a $32 million settlement with the federal government after its contractors caused nearly 1 million pounds of heavy metals to flood into the watershed serving parts of New Mexico and the Navajo Nation seven years ago. On Aug. 5, 2015, contractors for the Environmental Protection Agency […]
30% of New Mexicans seeking FEMA help got denial letters, but they can still get aid
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has so far deemed 740 applicants ineligible for federal aid for damages caused by the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon fire, though an official stressed Monday that the door is still wide open for those people to get FEMA help. Spokesperson Angela Byrd provided new numbers to Source New Mexico about applications […]
People in the disaster zone have words for Biden ahead of his NM visit
Voters who may have lost homes or just returned to scorched properties in northern New Mexico went to the polls anyway this week to cast ballots for the next round of local leaders who will help shape the rebuilding process. As they did, Source New Mexico reporters spread out up north and stayed most of […]
FEMA provides millions to those affected by wildfire, but real cash help is still pending
MORA, N.M — Diana Trujillo stepped out of a single-story VFW hall on Tuesday afternoon, just after the Federal Emergency Management Agency deposited $37,000 into her bank account. That’s the maximum amount the agency provides to people who lost their homes to the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon megafire in northern New Mexico, the biggest in the […]
New Mexico Primary Election Results 2022
After winning the GOP primary for governor by a long shot on Tuesday, Republican Mark Ronchetti will take on Democratic incumbent Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in November’s general election. “We have a governor that has decided that she will look out for the best interests of the elites in Santa Fe instead of you,” Ronchetti […]