Flash-flooding in New Mexico swept away three in 2022; the US has agreed to pay the survivors millions

Shortly after the largest wildfire in New Mexico history, a flash flood in July 2022 sent water raging through burn-scarred Tecolote Creek in rural San Miguel County.

A Texas family making an annual summer trip to their cabin in northern New Mexico attempted to flee in a vehicle but were swept away and killed.

Three years after the fatal flood, the United States has reached a settlement with surviving family members.

As the floodwaters receded, search crews found the bodies of Betty Greenhaw, 84, and her daughter, Linda Cummings, 62, on the banks of Tecolote Creek. Days later, on July 26, a team aided by members of the New Mexico National Guard found the body of Linda’s husband, Jimmy Cummings, 62.

All three victims were from Hale Center, Texas.

Police found their capsized vehicle in the creek with no one inside. Also destroyed was their cabin, which had belonged to the family for 60 years.

Without admitting wrongdoing, the U.S. government agreed last week to pay $4.25 million to five children of the victims, according to records filed in U.S. District Court for New Mexico.

The U.S. Forest Service claimed it had notified residents of Mora and San Miguel counties of flooding danger following the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, said David Houliston, an Albuquerque attorney who represented the family.

“We found no evidence of that,” Houliston said Tuesday. “The last thing you ever think is going to happen to you in the forest in New Mexico is that you’ll be killed by a flood.”

The suit alleged that officials failed to follow prescribed measures, such as closing roads and posting warnings to people at risk of flash flooding.

Daniel Walker, a Florida attorney who also represented the family, previously told the Journal that the family wouldn’t have traveled to the cabin had they known of the dangers.

The Calf Canyon/Hermits Creek Fire, the state’s largest-ever wildfire, destroyed more than 314,000 acres and 900 structures, but resulted in no deaths from the fire itself.

The lawsuit, filed by family members in October 2023, alleged that the fires left surrounding hillsides covered with ash and loose soil devoid of vegetation, contributing to the severity of the fatal flood.

“I think people are becoming more attuned to the aftermath of fires and the dangers that arise as a result of that,” Houliston said.

The U.S. Forest Service took responsibility for the Calf Canyon/Hermits Creek Fire, which formed in April 2022 after the merger of a prescribed burn the U.S. Forest Service lost control of and an improperly extinguished Forest Service pile burn from January 2022 that rekindled. The fires spread out of control in high winds in April 2022 and took more than two months to contain.

The three deaths were a direct result of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire, the resulting burn scars and deadly flash floods, the suit alleged.

The Forest Service also allegedly failed to provide adequate warnings to the Cummings couple and Greenhaw about the dangers caused by the wildfire, and the dangers of potential flash floods in the area, the suit alleges.

Congress in 2022 passed the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act and set aside nearly $4 billion to compensate victims.

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation said earlier this year that nearly $5.5 billion in federal disaster aid appropriated to help victims of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire is set aside in a separate funding pool and has not been impacted by actions of President Trump’s administration.

Houliston said the government’s admission of fault and passage of the act helped the family to obtain a settlement in the case.

The lawsuit cited language in the act saying “the United States should compensate the victims for injuries resulting from the fire of the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon fire,” including resulting flash flooding.