When the Mountain Burned: Inside the Ruidoso Wildfires and the Alert That Saved a Town

In this gripping episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola sit down with Eric Queller, Emergency Manager for the mountain community of Ruidoso, to unpack one of the most intense wildfire response operations in recent memory.

What began as a routine fire-weather day on June 17, 2024, quickly escalated into a fast-moving disaster as the South Fork and Salt Fires ignited within the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), threatening thousands of residents and tens of thousands of seasonal visitors. Within hours, a quiet mountain town of 7,000 surged into crisis mode—with a population nearing 90,000 during peak tourist season.

Eric provides a vivid, moment-by-moment account of the day everything changed: from the first call reporting smoke in Upper Canyon, to hearing elite firefighting crews forced to retreat due to extreme fire behavior, to the realization that this was no ordinary incident—but a worst-case scenario unfolding in real time.

Listeners are taken inside the Emergency Operations Center as it rapidly escalates from routine monitoring to full Level 1 activation. Eric recounts the weight of critical decisions, including issuing a rare and urgent “GO NOW” evacuation alert that ultimately led to the full evacuation of Ruidoso—something the town had never practiced at scale.

This episode dives deep into the realities of modern emergency management, including:

-The challenges of protecting a high-risk Wildland-Urban Interface community

-Managing a dynamic population with tens of thousands of tourists unfamiliar with local risks

-The strengths and limitations of the Ready, Set, Go framework—and why it may fall short in real-world scenarios

-How clear, plain-language alerts can cut through confusion and save lives
The importance of multi-channel alerting systems, including IPAWS, Wireless 

-Emergency Alerts, NOAA Weather Radio, AM/FM broadcasting, and even door-to-door notifications

-The role of local infrastructure—like Ruidoso’s own government-run radio station—in delivering trusted, continuous communication during crisis

Eric also shares the emotional and operational intensity of working nearly four straight days without rest, coordinating with state officials, and making high-stakes decisions with incomplete information—all while the fire spread rapidly across rugged terrain.

Beyond the fire itself, the conversation foreshadows the cascading disasters that often follow wildfires, including flash flooding risks in burn-scarred landscapes—highlighting why emergency management doesn’t end when the flames go out.

This episode is both a masterclass in crisis communication and a sobering reminder of how quickly disasters can escalate—and how critical timely, decisive alerts are in protecting lives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hi, I'm Jeanette Sutton.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

And I am Eddie Bertella.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

And we welcome you to another episode of the Alerting Authority. And as always, we encourage you to subscribe, follow, listen, and most importantly, participate in these podcasts. We want your questions, concerns, your ideas, your problems, your pain points, and your success stories. So we as alerting authorities can better do our job to make our communities safer. And today we are super excited to be welcoming to our podcast Eric Queller. Eric serves as the emergency manager for the village of Rio Doso, New Mexico, leading community preparedness, response, and long-term recovery efforts. His leadership spans multiple complex disasters, including the 2024 South Fork and SALT Wildfire, the subsequent flooding, the 2025 post-burn scar floods, and recent winter storm impacts. And in these incidents, Eric led emergency operations center coordination and supported response and recovery activities for multiple presidentially declared disasters, which we will be hearing about a lot today. So Eric began his emergency management career at 17 years of age in San Antonio, Texas, where he was in the Bexar County Community Emergency Response Team. And then later with the Bexar County Office of Emergency Management, he has a Bachelor's of Business Administration from MSU, Texas. And his leadership has been recognized by Texas Emergency Management Association, the Texas State Senate, and the New Mexico House of Representatives, and the New Mexico Association of Emergency Management Professionals. They named him the Emergency Manager of the Year in 2024. Eric is truly a phenomenon too. And I'm just so excited that we get the opportunity to hear from him and to learn about his experiences as this dynamic and young and energetic emergency manager who's worked through so many presidentially declared disasters in his young tenure. So we're excited to welcome Eric.

unknown 2:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

And I mean to be named Emergency Manager of the Year, it doesn't mean you're not doing anything. It means that you're probably involved in more stuff than you want to be involved in because stuff is happening to your community. So those types of awards and recognitions, I want everyone to remember that it's because of actions that are happening, sleepless nights and and having to activate. So it'll be really fun to hear everything that kind of led into that. I doubt he's going to say, hey, guess what? I was nominated here, I got this. Um he's probably just really going to be just engaged in the the process. And you'll find that emergency managers, it's fun. And I'd say with alerting authorities, they really love their communities and the people that they they help serve. And um so it'll be fun. And another fun thing is we're welcoming another sponsor. We have Everbridge that is sponsoring this episode of the Alerting Authority. Everbridge is used by more than 6,500 global organizations to keep people safe and reduce disruption to operations. They help leading enterprises and government organizations across the globe build digital and physical resilience by using their industry-leading solutions. Today, their high-velocity CEM platform, powered by purpose-built AI, sets a world standard for business resilience. So with Everbridge, customers can confidently anticipate, mitigate, respond to, and recover from critical events. So we want to thank Everbridge for sponsoring and look forward to many other opportunities to work with them.

SPEAKER_02 4:03

I am I'm so excited to welcome Eric to the show. Eric, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, no, it's uh it's a pleasure to be here and I'm looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

That's so great. So, you know, we read your background, um, which is encompassing of your education and your prior experiences, but I want to know more about your town, the village of Rio Doso, New Mexico. Can you tell us about it and also a little bit about the emergency management agency that you work in?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Yeah, no. Um, so yeah, lovely, lovely to be talking with y'all this morning. Um, so when it comes to the village of Rio Doso, uh, you know, we're I like to say we're a small mountain town, but truly that's kind of a a misconception. Um, you know, our census population is about 7,000. That was the last census count uh a couple years ago. Um and that's you know uh the equivalent of, you know, our our permanent residents that are staying here, um, that are here year-round. Uh but when we start getting into our like key tourist seasons, um, when we start getting into the uh, you know, June, July, August, September uh time periods, we truly uh shoot up to a really destination location for the village, uh for the for the entire United States. Um and so we go from a small town of 7,000 upwards to 50, 60, and all high as uh almost 90,000 people that come um in the the the Riodoso complex. So Riodoso Downs, Alto, uh Mescalero, um uh Capitan, all of our surrounding uh uh jurisdictions. So we we truly shoot up uh significantly in our population. Um so we're we're we're we're doing uh uh small town things, but we have of course uh uh a lot of people that come and enjoy the enjoy the town.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

And just to keep the tourism board or bureau of your area happy, um can you actually where is Riudoso?

SPEAKER_00 6:11

Like Yeah, no, that's that's that's a great question. Uh so we are the most southern uh tip of the Rockies uh when it comes to um the Rocky Mountain chain. Um and so uh we uh cater to a lot of uh uh what we call tourism hubs. And so we have the Amarillo, the Lubbock, the Midland Odessa, and the El Paso uh uh clientele market that comes over from West Texas. Um, of course, uh El Paso being one of our largest uh providers of uh of tourists that come to Riodoso. We're about two hours from from El Paso. Um and so uh when it comes to the uh the the folks that are coming up, it's a it's a nice little mountain getaway from the desert southwest.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

I love it. Now you guys are small, right, as permanent residents, big for tourism, but you're also pretty big for events that have happened. Um being being small as an agency does not preclude you from dealing with pretty intense things. And one that I'd like to just talk about a little bit is the fires that were in 2024, uh South Fork and South Creek fires or Salt Creek fires. Um can you tell us a little bit about what that was and kind of your experience?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, no, so kind of building upon the um the the the tourism industry, one of the other things that Rio Doso um really is kind of in the thick of um is our are what we call the wooy, the wildland urban interface. And so it's when you have an urban setting really in the mountains. And so you have house, house, tree, and tree, tree, tree, or or green belt where it's just all trees. And so um when it comes to you know the the threat dynamics, you know, looking at our our our thyra, which is our our threat hazard identification risk model, um, is is our number one threat is wildfires, uh flooding, straight line wind events, um, pretty much anything and everything um we have the elevated uh threat of of receiving here in Rio Doso. So and uh my my tagline that I've been using the last uh you know couple months now is uh I'm I'm the emergency manager for uh the most disaster prone community in the desert southwest. Um and and that really came from a conversation I had with my National Weather Service partners, and we were running data. Um, and and we'll talk a little bit about later about how many flash flood warnings have been issued for for the village of Riodoso from the National Weather Service office. Uh it's it's it's above 50, uh, and it's definitely above 100. Uh and that's been since June 17th. And so to to your original question, when it comes to the the South Fork fire and and the salt fire, um, it was that was kind of the the turning point and pivotal point of of receiving the the I guess nomination and award for most disaster prone community in the desert southwest. Um but uh it's it it's truly been it's truly been interesting. Um when it comes to the the 17th of June was was actually the date of the actual fire. Um uh a lot of people uh you'd think that oh it was you know a an anomaly. There were there wasn't, you know, there was these high elevated conditions. Well, it it was just a normal a normal day, you know. In emergency management, you know, we really think that uh, you know, I have an idea of when I'm gonna go to bed, but truly that doesn't always come into play. And so on the the 17th of June, that was a Monday, um, I didn't anticipate being up for 94 hours uh that morning uh because of the South Fork fire. And so just kind of walking y'all through the through the timeline. Uh but before we get into that, taking a step back, the South Fork fire uh was 17 uh thousand five hundred and sixty nine acres. So by the time that we did total containment, that was the amount of acres that it consumed. Um now that was also um, you know, that happened on that day, the the 17th of June. It wasn't just the South Fork fire that we were doing or that we were dealing with that day. Um, we also had a second large wildfire uh that was kind of horizontal to to the uh South Fork uh to the South Fork fire, and that burned a total of 7,000 uh 71 acres. And so again, you have these two large fires that are in the wildland urban interface. Um it just had conditions not to line up to to a great situation. Um, so again, you look at the weather conditions, they were not anywhere near like historic. There was not any, you know, uh a PDS public or um excuse me, uh it was, oh, what does a PDS stand for? Particularly dangerous situation from the National Weather Service. There was none type of those conditions, it was just a normal high-risk fire day. Um, and so when you start looking at the timeline, it really just started uh from one um start, which is in the back of Upper Canyon. So just kind of orient y'all on the map. Um you have the the north side of town, which is like going out towards Alto and Albuquerque. Um, and then you have like Upper Canyon, and that's going really towards the west, and you really run into federal land. So you have our uh our uh uh Mescalero Apache Reservation, um, that's right to the to the to the west of us, and then you have uh down to the south, which is like going to Cloudcroft and El Paso. Uh the fire started at the end of Upper Canyon, um uh on the uh Mescalero Nation. Um it was two to three miles from the back of the jurisdictional line. So Mescalero really butts up against uh the village of Riodoso. And so we got a call that morning uh where there was a a fire that was detected, and uh BIA Bureau of Indian Affairs and Smokey Bear hotshots were en route. Um we're lucky enough that we sit in the Lincoln National Forest and we get uh you know federal assets. So we have a hotshot crew that's here, and it's an advanced uh wildland firefighting uh agency and organization. So um they got dispatched out um almost immediately once we we got notification that there was a hot spot and there was a notification that there was a fire. Um so they they went out um in the morning. So that was around that nine, 10 o'clock hour. Um about 10 uh 30, uh, we get a phone call in emergency management. Um, and it really talked about um, you know, Smokey Bear hotshots are in route and we're ordering air resources. Um can we use your your lake, which we have Grindstone Lake, um as a dip point uh for for the helicopters to come get water to do fire suppression. Um so we were coordinating um already at that moment an evacuation of the lake to start using it as a dip point. Um so I actually go out to to Grindstone Lake to kind of facilitate the evacuation, kind of loop in with our public safety officials. Um and uh I just remember this moment very vividly. Uh I'm sitting in the cab of of my work vehicle, my unit, um, and we're sitting there and um over the radio, I have the radio turned up, um, and it's the interagency dispatch, um, and they're talking with interagency dispatch, they being the the Smoky Bear hotshots. Um, and they say that they're having to pull out due to fire intensity. And when you're in the wildland urban interface, you don't like to hear that on the radio. So we know that that was like a pivotal moment of this is gonna go down uh in a hurry. The the situation is is is not is not working out in our favor. Um so by then I go ahead and issue an initial uh a sit rep or situation report to our executive leadership and EOC staff. Um we uh degrade the uh emergency operations center level to a level three. We were at level four that morning, uh just normal operations. We go into an increased readiness. So we're already starting to make phone calls to our sheltering partners like do you have availability uh to Red Cross? Do you have uh your shelter support trailers? Uh what's your availability? You know, just those type of pre-action items that that uh you know you want to make sure that you're you're ahead of the curve instead of behind the curve. We start moving into um this this this territory of oh, this again is is gonna get bad uh because we also know what the forecast conditions were the afternoon. And that was uh you know, critical fire weather in the afternoon. And so um we go ahead and I go to level three, and then almost immediately we go to a level two, which is escalated response in the emergency operations center world, um, uh uh high readiness, and we go ahead and recall um our command and general staff. So law enforcement, fire, police, uh my planning section, logistics section, finance section chief. Um, we all go to village hall to do an initial just ops briefing. Like, what is going on? What's happening? Then uh from there, it wasn't, you know, I would say 12 minutes since I got to Village Hall. I was waiting for all of the the section chiefs to come and I get a phone call uh from from our neighbors in Mescalero. And and they're really um, you know, urging us to go ahead and issue a ready message, uh, which is you know our wildfire evacuation message for Upper Canyon and Brady Canyon. Um and so I said, okay, executive leadership will be here. Um can you just tell me? And they're they're just saying, you just need to do it, you just need to do it, you need to do it. So we're going, okay. We end up getting all of our our our um command and operations staff or our command and general staff together. Uh, we do like a 12-minute briefing. We issue a ready message for Upper Canyon, um, and then we immediately, once that emergency uh alert went out for Upper Canyon and Brady Canyon, uh, we went to a level one activation, which is a a maximum readiness emergency conditions. Uh that's when when you enact the emergency operations plan, you enact the continuity of operations. If you need to enact the continuity of government, uh that gives us the power to to do all of those things. And and uh at the same time, we're setting up our emergency operations center uh because we we knew where this was going. So we move forward and we uh went from the the village hall, and I just remember coming out of village hall, and then uh when I got to village hall, there was like this one little plume uh of smoke coming from the mountainside. And then uh you go into village hall, and then not even 25 minutes later, 30 minutes later, I walk out of village hall, and the entire mountainside is on fire. Um, and that's when we knew that that things were were were just this would this was the the worst case scenario. This was our wow, or our worst of the worst case scenario that was playing out. So we end up leaving Village Hall and we moved to Fire Station One, which is where our emergency operations center um was was um scripted at the time. That's where we met, that's where we trained, that's what it is in our plans. Um, and it was considered a cold emergency operations center. So we had to move tables when we got there, we had to take stuff out of the bins, we had to set up the IT equipment. That took about 45 minutes to get everything up and operational uh before we could start, you know, really coordinating the the response effort. So we get to Village Hall, and between the um the village hall and the fire station one emergency operations center, um, I I remember uh going down Paradise Canyon and I was um calling um a few of my colleagues and I was also making contact with the state to kind of tell them what's going on. Um and one of those, you know, kind of in the moment, like we're gonna skip some things and we're gonna go ahead and call the state director um and let her really know what's going on. And so I remember giving her a shout, and she, you know, immediately hanged up and she texted me, like, I'm in a meeting with the with the cab secretary, or uh uh, can I call you back? And I'm like, nope, I need you to call me now. And we laugh about it today, uh, because I was like, remember that time where I where I interrupted your meeting? And she was like, Yeah, but it was for good reason. And so I remember her texting, like, can I call you back? And I'm like, no, I need you to talk now. So she you know picked up, and you know, when you're when you're trying to to be discreet in a meeting, you know, you're over there on the side, and I'm like, hey, it's about to get real in Rio-Dos, so you you should probably like get your your staff together. Uh I just went to a level one activation. We already have emergency alerts out. Uh the community's preparing to to start evacuating. And she goes, Oh, let me put you on speaker. So she puts me on speaker with the CAD secretary. Um, and then I kind of give the quick, you know, rundown of what's happening. And the call ends, and I don't call her back until about 48 hours later. Um, and so during that time she didn't know if we were we were still there or or if we weren't. So that was kind of the initial attack during the South Fork fire. Then we can go into the rest of it later, but that was how the morning perspired that morning.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

That's that is amazing. Um and the you know, obviously those events are so etched in your memory of these and these individual images that you have kept in your mind that anchors you to those moments that were so pivotal. Um, and and um thank you for sharing those with us because they're really vivid, and it's that kind of vividness that helps us to really envision what it would be like if we were walking in your shoes.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:09

Um you talked about a ready message and that Mescalero asked you to issue that message. Can you tell us what ready means and what did they hope people would do when they received a ready message?

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, no. Uh so you know, the village of Riodoso and and really our local partners have adapted to the uh National Fire Chief Association's guidelines when it comes to you know the ready set go program. And so when you look at ready set go, and this is, you know, I'll I'll be honest, it it's kind of heartburn with this. And I know we could talk a little bit about this. The Ready Set Go uh program wasn't really intended for evacuation messaging, and I think that's something that us in the profession of our Emergency management and alerting authorities need to really have honest and deep conversations about wildfire evacuation. I know you're kind of heading up that that uh that mission uh when it comes to trying to get everyone on the same page, but the ready message is like you're you're be aware of your surroundings. It it's it's you need to have a heightened sense of situational awareness. Uh you don't really have to act right now, but I really need you to turn off the silence on your phone. You know, make sure your weather radio is still programmed uh for local alerts, you know, make sure that you're, you know, maybe checking Facebook a little bit more often on for official updates from official channels. Uh it's just that kind of heightened situational awareness we want people to be in. Um there's no immediate risk, but you could uh get into a set or a go message uh at any time. Um and there's also a lot of misconception that you have the layered approach. It can go from ready, set to go. Um, where that's not the case. And what happened during South Fork for Upper Canyon, Brady Canyon, we went from a ready message and we skipped set and we went straight to a go message where your life is in danger, we need you to leave and evacuate to a safe location. So you have that ready message, then you have a set message, um, which is like your your evacuation warning. And that is your, hey, if you have access functional needs, if you have livestock, if you have some other hurdle that is that that that you need to take care of, this is your your go message. You should probably start moving, moving away from this area. Um it's your it's your evacuation warning. Then you take a step further, which is a a go message, and that's like your evacuation order. Um, again, when it comes to evacuations, again, across the the conduct in the United States and and everywhere else in the world, everyone has different laws and and regulations when it comes to evacuations. Here in the state of New Mexico, we have no mandatory evacuation laws. So I can't issue an order, a lawful order for people to vacate an area. Up now I can tell them to evacuate and then shut down public roads and keep them out. That is fully within the power of the law for emergency management. But we can't issue a lawful order, we can't go into someone's residence, take them out of there, and all of all of that good stuff. So the go message is you're truly your life is in danger. And we can talk a little bit about the the go message, the historic go message that went out for the village of Riyodoso, um here, here in a second. But uh that's your last level alert. There's no there's no additional emergency alerts that are that are coming after this message. Uh that's that's your that's your you it's your sign to leave. Um and so that's the the steps that that that we practice right now um with the Ready Set Go model.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Well, we're taking a short break to talk about our sponsor one more time, which is Everbridge. Um, but I hope everybody's listening to this conversation because when it comes to alerting and resilience, it's not just about quote unquote sending a message, it's about making sure the right people get the right information at the right time. And that's why, as we've said before, more than 6,500 organizations around the world trust Everbridge. From global enterprise to government agencies, Everbridge helps teams stay ahead of disruption and protect what matters most. Their high-velocity CEM platform, which is powered by purpose-built AI, helps organizations anticipate risk, communicate clearly during a crisis, and recover faster from critical events that occur all around us. Whether it's severe weather, operational disruption, which, as you're hearing Eric talk about, which could be fire, flood, or many other things, um, we all experience major incidents. Everbridge can help leaders stay informed and have more confidence as they make decisions and act quickly to better their communities. If resilience matters to you and your organization, and it should, Everbridge is helping set the global standard. So thank you to them. And let's uh continue on. And you can learn more about Everbridge at Everbridge.com.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

It's interesting you're talking about different states having different abilities to remove people from their homes or not, and the language that's used. And my understanding is that in California, and Eddie, you probably know this very well, that they can issue an evacuation order, but they still cannot go in and remove people from their homes. But in other states, they issue an order and they can remove people from their homes. I think that's Texas. Um, and so the language, even when you're not using it as because you because it's not enforceable, there are some places that use it and it's still not enforceable. And the it so there's like this this potential point of confusion about what's lawful, what's not lawful, what's the requirements around it. And I know that you guys also blend in these levels in addition to your ready set go, and then maybe some colors and um it the the the layers of of messaging kind of build on top of each other, which can create some um uh well, I honestly I don't know if it's confusing for people. And I I would love to hear, you know, as we continue our conversation today about your public education around all of that language. Um that Eddie, do you know is that a correct characterization of evacuation order in California? It's they can't actually move people.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

Correct. No, it is, but they still use you know voluntary and mandatory, you know, as different different things to say, but you're correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

Yeah, yeah. Um yeah, well, thanks for for sharing all of that, Eric, because it it it it is a challenge. And and you're right there. Um I I'm not the one who's leading the efforts and trying to to coordinate that. I'm working alongside of um different organizations that are really interested in helping to create more consistency across organizations and across states. Um NFPA, the US fire administrator was working on it uh for some period of time. Um but we also know that individual states have adopted different approaches, which makes it really hard to create that consistency from one place to the next. And so um, you know, your your historic go now message that you did issue was actually very motivating, regardless of what people might say about the language that was used. And I have it in front of me. It says, go now, do not attempt to gather belongings or protect your home, evacuate immediately. And that is a very significantly motivating message. Like you have no time. It is it is time to get out.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, and and when we do the sorry, uh would when we did that that emergency message and and all of our emergency messages, you know, we talked a little bit about how the you know the ready set go. Um that's like an internal layer where we have like this is your ready message, this is your your set message, this is your go message. Um, we're not including the the ready set go in the emergency alerts themselves. Um, and so it won't say like uh, you know, Upper Canyon, you're on a ready status, because because of our tourists, they don't know what a ready status is, but we have a specific language that really assimilate with a ready message or a set message or a go message. So just wanted to throw that in there.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Well, that's an important distinction because there are some states that do use ready status, set status, and go status. Um so they've they've adopted the language to new ways of communicating severity levels. And um, you know, it it it creates some interesting questions about um you know how do we communicate this so that it's super plain and clear to people like when you have 90,000 tourists coming through your community, like you gotta be clear.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

No, and that's where I am not a big fan of uh exactly what Jeanette said, right? You have to take care of that dynamic population. And so if you aren't giving them clear guidance, that if it's your first day, whether you're visit visiting Mescalero or another portion of that infrastructure in that area where you where you live, you need to have that same ability to understand and follow that message so that you can protect yourself. Um now we keep talking about the message, but how did you send the message? Was like did you use different channels like dissemination methods? Were you one and done, or did you try different things?

SPEAKER_00 31:22

Yeah, no. So when it comes to to Riyadoso, and I know that there's a an organization out there, um, I can't remember who, but they, you know, that they're really emphasizing, you know, the the redundancy saves lives, layers save lives. And and we've taken that approach with with Riadoso emergency management um in the village of Riadoso, is we understand technology fails, um, and so having redundancy when it comes to alerting mechanisms. And so the the day of the South Fork fire and the salt fire, uh the alerting systems that we were using, um, of course, our big one is the IPOS, the integrated public alert warning system. Um, we were sending EAS messages. Um, we were uh the emergency alert system through normal traditional media, your radio and television. Uh then of course the the big one that I think contributed a lot to people taking that that uh that go message seriously was our Wii, our wireless emergency alerts, um, and then our our NOAA weather radios. Um we so we utilized the iPod system uh pretty significantly the day of the fire. Um we also took a step back and we also have our our opt-in system, our our call me Riyadosa system that allows folks to sign up um and and get emergency alerts through you know text message, email, uh phone calls. Um it allows you, I think you can still sign up and get fax messages um from the alert system. Um and so we utilize that. Um that that was also in play during the the the the 17th of June. Um and then we also took a step further um is you know if technology fails, we still have the the duty to spread emergency alerts. And so you get out of the the realm of uh technology and you go to the most uh basic way of alerting the public, which is going door to door. Um, and so uh this actually was an afteraction of the McBride fire, and you know, I've talked about the Wildland Urban Interface for Rio Doso. Um we historically have just been a fire-prone community. And so um two years before the South Fork fire, we had the McBride fire. Well, after the McBride fire, the village understood that emergency alerting is important, and actually all of the parks and wrecks, public works, planning and zoning vehicles have lights and sirens and a PA system on them. And so that's one of the best practices that we have uh and in our in our toolbox of alerting is we have a a plethora, we have a fleet of vehicles that can be utilized for evacuations going up and down these evacuation routes to let people know that there's an immediate threat coming. Um so the again, the day of the the 17th, that Monday, um we were we were using our our iPods or opt-in system, and then we were also going door-to-door knocking and and telling people that, hey, it's it's coming or you're in a ready status, or you're it's time for you to go. Um, and then that last level of like it's really hitting the fan um was the the 6.40 p.m. alert message that went out to that full city evacuation. At that same time, we activated our outdoor warning system. So at the time the village of Riedoso had an outdoor warning system, it still does. We just actually did significant improvements to it, uh, but it was a single-tone alert system that really uh emphasized that this is a full city evacuation. We need you to tune in for additional information and we need you to leave. Um, and so that was the layers that were implemented uh that truly uh saved lives that day.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Bravo for using the EAS system. When people talk about IPAWS, they often talk about WIA. Um, one thing dealing with wildfires from my experience and your experience is the infrastructure of the cellular network can be compromised during a wildfire, whether it's through public safety, you know, power shutoffs and and other things that are in advance or through just destruction of the actual infrastructure itself. Um I mean you could have though those issues, but with the EAS system using uh radio TV to broadcast, that is such a wide breadth of a of a broadcast that you really can reach people. Um and so props to you for using the EAS system as well. It's often overlooked.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

Yeah, no, and uh one little caveat that I I love to throw in there, because again, we're we're so unique in our in our uh uh abilities to um uh reach the public beyond traditional means, and it's truly because the village of Riedoso has their actual own AM radio station. Um so it's owned and operated by the Village of Riedoso. We have our own infrastructure that's on uh generator backup, the station. Um we have a whole plan that uh allows our our radio producer um to uh uh do uh incremental updates or the day of the South Fork fire. Um we we enacted that plan and he just r continued on air through the duration of the evacuation, just giving updates of what the fire was doing. So it wasn't that just original EAS message that kind of uh broke up uh the broadcast. Um it was also um added where we could give more specific information about what was happening to the community, and we continue to utilize our AM radio station. Um, and and we actually just got a converter, so it's AM and FM now. Uh, but uh it's uh it's something that we're uh utilizing a lot of um in this in this um you know tourist community since um everyone, you know, yes, we tell people to find more information at the end of our alerts. Um well we tell them, you know, to tune in to 1490 a.m. or 99.1 FM to get additional information since that will always be be rotating through.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

That's a tremendous resource. And I bet that that broadcaster has some really good stories to share about what it was like to be on air for days at a time. Yeah, I read about stories of of people who were on the radio fall in the in the midst of other disasters. Those are always really compelling um narratives about people's experiences of being that voice of of trust and somebody people were really looking to throughout the event. Um so so okay, so let's move on from you've you had the morning, the evacuations have gone out, the entire town was evacuated. You lost a lot of structures. Yes. Um and so there was a lot of losses. Um can you tell us a little bit about that and then tell us about how that leads into planning for flash flooding?

SPEAKER_00 38:40

No, so uh we never really uh, you know, we had our evacuations planned, but we never really anticipated doing a full city evacuation. And so we uh were kind of moving into uncharted territory that day. Um luckily we we we had uh you know the message go out, people were abiding by it. Um we had our firefighting assets that were protecting those evacuation uh routes that were going out towards Roswell. Um and when it came to just the the uh the cooperation from our citizens, uh, you know, in the moment I didn't really hear stories, you know. I I I didn't, you know, talk to to residents that were evacuating. We were coordinating the evacuation, but on the backside, um, we were actually talking with our uh with with our residents, and they were like, that was the most polite evacuation uh we ever experienced. I'm like, what are you talking about? And they're like, people would just let us through and and we felt safe that we were we were moving in a good direction. Um and I think that was really going back to the urgency of the message, but it was giving those key details within the message of this is your route that is safe. And it was amplified by the things that were being said on the radio, the opt-in system, the the messages that were going out through uh social media, um, that you're going to Roswell and there's a place for you in Roswell. Um, and then of course we ended that message with tune in to 1490 a.m. for additional information. Well, everyone's in their cars, they're gonna tune into the to the radio station to get more information. So that's really truly what what happened during the the full city evacuation. But it's always interesting to hear people that was the politest evacuation we've ever been part of. And I was like, thank you. Good. I'm glad you had a good experience. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

That's that's so great. I I have my my colleague who's in Australia, um, who did so much work here in the United States before moving there. So hi Erica Kuligowski. I talk about you all the time. You know this. Um, Erica's recent research on wildfires and Australia, bushfires in Australia. The people the the thing that people need to know that is frequently absent from messages is where do they go? Where is the evacuation shelter available? And it sounds like you provided the the information people needed to help them to make the decision that this is this is indeed where I should be going because they've already thought through how how I'm gonna be safe when I get there. So yeah, it's a good job.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Ronated. I am again super impressed with this. Now and again, giving people information when you look at after action reports, that is like the first, second, and third thing that comes up is communication, information. Um not only internally, people want it for decision making, so you can have informed leadership, informed decision making, but the public needs it so that they can uh feel safe and make the right decisions to protect themselves and and everyone else. I really like how you touched on access and functional needs. And that's something that we have talked a lot about, and to that wasn't prompted by us, that was something that you had thought in advance about, which again, kudos for it. I think one one key thing, and I know we're gonna end here in just a second, is you don't have a staff of 15 people, right? For emergency management. So can you can you briefly hit because I think there are people who listen, and I know Jeanette and I have worked with individuals that are in a similar situation where they feel so absolutely overwhelmed because they're I'm not gonna give give your story away, but in a similar situation.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Yeah, no, it's uh it it's unique, and and when you really take a step back and you look at most of the United States and you look at those EM programs, they're usually one-person offices, two people. Um it's the metropolitan areas or those larger jurisdictions, those larger counties um that that have the luxury of having two, three, four emergency management um, you know, staff members. Um, and so when it comes to uh the village of Riyodoso, um since since the start of me working for the village, um I've been a one-person office. Um and so I went through two presidential disaster declarations with a a staff of myself. Uh of course it was augmented by my incredible village staff um that that um are are cross-trained in certain functions. So we can get into the incident command system and and planning section chiefs and logistics and finance and operations and all of that. Uh but uh we we've we've we've taken this this sense of of shared purpose. Emergency management just doesn't rely on the emergency management division of the organization. It's a a cross disciplinary sector that is shared between all departments. Um Because you could be called to fill a incident command role if if you need to. And so with that said, I am so excited. I do have a deputy emergency manager. He started uh December 1st. Um, and so uh he has made my life a lot easier, I will tell you that. So I'll definitely give Lyd Weir a shout out. Uh he's he's our new deputy emergency manager, but he's been doing great. Uh he allows the um the actual uh preparedness planning um to continue. Um I know before the show we were a little talking about, you know, my my my work tends to get uh done in the off hours of the workday because we do do all of these these um meetings, you know. We we go to interagency recovery meetings, we go to preparedness meetings, local emergency planning committee meetings. Um, you know, that's that's ultimately my job as an emergency manager is to make sure we're fostering communications and relationships. My biggest tool in my toolbox is my Rolodex of contacts. And um, you know, you have to do that with meeting. My my my I'll I'll do a terrible joke as as we end this is you know, OEM stands for Office of Emergency Management, but it also stands for Office of Excessive Meetings. Um and so uh we're we're we're all about the meetings, but uh as as as a one-person office for so long, you really prioritize what you really need during the fight. And I think if I had to to amplify the message that that both of you are are already doing um great at um is is emergency alerts will save you the headache in the back end if you just sit there and pre-script your your wording and your messaging. Um during the the 17th of June, when we started issuing those evacuation orders, our our alert system that we use already had that information pre-populated into it. I just had to change the road names in the evacuation center. And that's and then we were off. We weren't sitting there trying to think of what needs to go in this message. It was already pre-scripted, and and that that saved times and that saved lives.

SPEAKER_02 46:19

That's great. And uh I'm so glad that you've been able to grow your staff and you have your new deputy who's alongside of you, and um the real creative ways of integrating across the whole village of bringing everybody together. So what's next? You've got monsoon season, you've got tourists getting ready to come and spend their summer with you. Yeah. Um, how are you preparing to communicate um as these other events happen? And we'll wrap up there.

SPEAKER_00 46:48

Yeah, no, it's a it's a great question. It's something that's sitting in the back part of my mind right now. And uh, you know, when when we start looking at fires, uh, it goes hand in hand with floods. Um and so the South Fork fire uh by day three, we were already flooding, and that led to the the flooding of 2024. And so we we flooded, um, we we had 13 flash flood emergencies that were issued uh during the July uh 24 season. Uh 25, we had our big one, July 8th. Uh, that again is all due to the post-burn scar environment. And um there was only one flash flood uh uh emergency that was issued, which was July 8th. But there was actually 28 flash flood warnings that were issued by the Albuquerque National Weather Service office for 2025. Um, and so it it goes to this bigger, bigger issue of after the fires comes the flooding. And it's not just immediately after the fires, in our case it was, um, but it was uh years to come. And so to to your question, what are we doing? We know that we're still in the thick of of flooding, and we're gonna flood for the next seven to ten years, like what we saw on July 8th and what we saw the previous year. And it's due just to the burn scars. It's it's the the the soil is is hydrophobic, it does not absorb any water. And then we have the monsoon season um that just um uh brings in that that tropical moisture, and we could see up to three inches of rain um in a day. And really, truly, and what people don't understand when it comes to burn scars, I start flooding with one inch of rain um within 15 minutes. And that's just something that that a lot of people have a hard time grasping. So what are we doing to to combat the the uh the the the false sense of reality, the the disaster fatigue, all of the things that we're doing. Uh we're we're um actually here in the next couple of weeks, we're doing uh a couple of tabletop exercises, and then before monsoon season, we're doing a functional exercise um related to uh post-burn scar flooding. Um we're taking it a bit further, we're informing the public, we're uh you know, uh talking the difference between what a watch warning and emergency is. Um where uh we're looking at, you know, having uh flood awareness workshops. Um and then we actually have incredible buy-in with our private partners. Um so we have our Riadoso Midtown Association and our Riadoso Chamber of Commerce that is really helping uh push our narrative of preparedness in the community. So when you go into shops, when you go into public restrooms, on the back side of the stall door, you have sign-up links for emergency alerts, um, and also talks to you about the difference between a watch warning and emergency is and and those safe locations uh that that that you can go to. Um and then the last thing that we uh that we're really pushing out, and and I can't take credit for this. I again I have an amazing staff here within the village of Riadoso, and they're really thinking outside the box is is um uh Chris Crissanti. Um she's my short-term rental admin. Um, and she um actually came to me um between the South Fork and the uh July 8th flooding event in 25 and said, what if we wrote into our coded ordinances that required all of our short-term rentals? So Airbnbs, um, all of all of those uh verbos, all of those short-term rentals. What if we required them, just like they're required to have a first aid kit, a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher? What if we added a section and a clause in there that made them have a no-weather radio? And so now we have no weather radios that are required in all of our short-term rentals. Um and that program has gone over really well. Um, and so that's just adding to that layers of we have out of town people that don't know the risks, but we need to get them risk informed when when things don't don't head in a in a great direction. Um, and so those are the things that we're we're thinking outside of the box on when it comes to keeping our our both our our static population, our permanent residents, but also our visitors safe.

SPEAKER_02 51:27

That those are fantastic tips that I think all of the listeners to the Alerting Authority can really take and implement in their own communities. I love this idea of putting up flyers in the bathrooms. Of course, people are gonna see those. And the radios, you're partnering with your small business owners, the owners of properties. You know, how they become a part of the solution and immediately connecting with their visitors and tourists. So well done. Those are great suggestions on how to increase knowledge and awareness. Truly um he's he's demonstrated this amazing leadership and um also the creativity that his community has embraced around alerting, um, not just with all of the layers of channels that they use, but the strategies to engage their local community and thinking beyond um just uh those who who are the residents, but uh building strategies to reach all of those people who come into their communities uh with the NOAA weather radios and the back of the toilet stall signs and QR codes. And um, I loved that their AM FM radio is so um visible and utilized in the community. What a treasured resource that must be when there's significant events happening.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

Well, I mean, a lot of communities have short-term rental or short-term tenants and it's that dynamic population. This is one of the best strategies that I have heard that they're they're using it and they're um it's not a liability. It's hey, welcome. We want you to be here, we want you to feel safe, and we're putting ordinances and things in place so that you're better prepared and you are safer. And I I was just like, yes, to like everything he was saying, you know, dealing with it at uh policy level, you know, and making those recommendations and getting it all approved, having those stakeholders involved be on the same page, and now it's enacted. And so I just think that's a fantastic solution. So um again, and I'm sure in post when this is all done and you guys are watching this on YouTube, I'm I'm hoping our producer, which I'm I'm sure he will especially after this, put that those radio stations on there. Um I I just think that's just a wonderful resource. So good job. And for every time we said Ryodo so incorrectly, I apologize. I promise, I practiced and uh I did my best. Um it's another I tell you, Jeanette, everybody we talk to is another place in the United States I'd love to visit.

SPEAKER_02 54:39

Oh yeah. I I would love to go and see this place. It sounds really beautiful. And having lived at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for 17 years in the Boulder County and then down in uh Colorado Springs, I mean, I just love that part of the country. It's just it's beautiful. So I can imagine being down in New Mexico. It must be just stunning.

SPEAKER_01 55:00

And for anybody else who wants to learn more or wants help, what can we offer them?

SPEAKER_02 55:07

You know, this was something we were talking with Eric about before we started our recording, and he touched on it a little bit at the end. He gets his put in air quotes, his work done between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. Because, like so many other really busy emergency managers carving out the time to focus on things like your alerts and your warnings so that you have your templates done ahead of time, or uh it's it's really hard to find the time. And that is where we can help and um where we have been helping communities across the country. Um, the alerting authority provides trainings. We can help with auditing messages to look for the jargon that might be present in your messages that that that prevents your local community from under understanding what you're trying to communicate really clearly. We can help with template assistance, uh policy assistance, helping your community to get on the same page. And um, you know, one of the things that we're offering in March and will be doing again um coming this summer is the warning boot camp. Carving out one week, two hours a day to work together in an online setting to build out your templates. Um, it you owe it to yourself and you owe it to your community to put in the time and effort to get this done. Putting in 10 hours of committed work time to getting your most critical alerts written and into your alerting system will save time. Not only does it save time, I mean, it literally saves lives. And that was really um emphasized by Eric as he was concluding our conversation today about the importance of having those things pre-programmed and knowing that when it was time to send the message, it had already been approved. Um, and all he had to do was add in the location information, but he was ready to go. So uh, you know, we at the alerting authority, we want to help. And so please, you know, pay attention to upcoming opportunities to join the boot camp. And you can find more information about our boot camp on thewarnroom.com, um which is um uh another website that we like to send people to to get additional information about how you can improve your alerts and warnings.

SPEAKER_01 57:33

Absolutely, and you'll see links, I'm sure, for that if you're seeing on YouTube or if you're on the allerging authority.com, you will see links for it all over too. Um, and just thank you for being here. Thank you for being a part of this. And again, thank you um to Eric, our guest, and our future guests and our sponsors. Um, we at the Alerting Authority believe that every second has a story, and it's our pleasure to be here to help share yours.