Oct. 22—After historic rainfall dropped over 5 inches of water onto Roswell over the weekend, the southeastern New Mexico city is beginning to start recovery efforts. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Monday that she had signed an emergency declaration for Chaves County, unlocking $1 million in state funding to assist with flood relief efforts.
In addition, the local nonprofit Albuquerque Community Foundation has activated its Emergency Action Fund to assist its state agency partners on the ground. Rooted in Albuquerque for over 40 years, the foundation has provided grants for social, cultural, educational, economic, workforce development, health care, human services and arts and culture needs.
But when the COVID-19 pandemic struck New Mexico, the foundation decided to partner with the United Way of North Central New Mexico to establish the Emergency Action Fund with the objective of partnering with organizations across the state and the community to raise funds for populations in need.
Since this initial activation, the fund has been used two other times — once to help the victims of the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire that burned more than 340,000 acres in northern New Mexico in 2022; and again to help with the victims of the South Fork and Salt fires and subsequent flooding that devastated Ruidoso this summer.
“(The Emergency Action Fund) has turned into a great partnership,” said Marisa Magallanez, chief operations officer of the foundation. “We pool resources from funders in and out of the state and from individuals who contribute locally and make sure that resources get to the communities where they are needed most.”
With this latest activation of the emergency fund, Magallanez said the foundation already has begun collections from organizational partners. It also has a donation link for the public to send funds to the flood victims. The foundation plans on sending the funds to the United Way of Chaves County and is working to identify other needy community partners in the area.
“One of the best things about New Mexico is how people support each other,” Magallanez said. “We are certainly at our best as New Mexicans when we help each other, and I have no doubt that the community will rally to help our neighbors in Roswell.”
