Wildfire has Glenwood ‘sandbagging’ it: N.M. town preps for major flooding

These days, sandbagging has a very different meaning for the residents of Glenwood, N.M. People in the western New Mexico community are busy filling sandbags to protect their homes from flooding they fear may soon occur. The main sources of their concern are damage to the watershed of the San Francisco River, which flows through Glenwood, and the possible advent of seasonal heavy rainfall, or so-called monsoons. The Whitewater-Baldy fire, which is in the San Francisco’s watershed, has burned for more than a month in the Gila National Forest just 15 miles from Glenwood. As of June 18, the lighting-caused wildfire had burned nearly 300,000 acres, more than 463 square miles, and was 80 percent contained. It is the largest-ever wildfire in New Mexico history. How much soil damage the fire has caused, as in becoming too hard and unable to absorb rainfall, will be a critical factor. The sandbag project in Glenwood involves providing bags, sand or dirt, showing people how to correctly fill sandbags and how to place them to protect their homes. Residents are being encouraged to team up to fill sandbags...more