TIJERAS, N.M. (KRQE) –A powerful hail and rainstorm on Saturday triggered unprecedented flooding in the East Mountains, but an arroyo restoration project already underway helped protect the community. The National Weather Service is calling it a 1-in-200-year event, meaning there was just a .5% chance of a storm this severe happening in any given year.
Story continues below
“While we think this type of rainfall is very rare, I think it’s important to note that this is an event that is increasingly likely in the face of a changing climate,” Eric Oliver, Chair of the Bernalillo County Commission.
The Tijeras community is now without a pedestrian bridge that has served for decades as a busy thoroughfare for students walking between the community center and a nearby middle school. “We need folks to understand that you cannot drop your kids off and just expect them to cross the creek. We’re in the monsoon season that worries us, so please work with us and be patient,” said Andre Dickson, City of Albuquerque Parks and Recreation Department Open Space Director.
He said the new bridge will be built to better withstand future flooding. But as far as overall damage to the area, the impact of the storm was minimal. County leaders credit the county’s watershed restoration project for that, saying it helped prevent an even bigger disaster. “Even though the project wasn’t totally complete, we believe it did its job. This actually helped protect the community and prevent a much greater storm surge,” said Olivas.
The goal of the project is to reshape the Tijeras arroyo so it’s wider and flatter, letting water soak into the ground instead of racing through. “The restoration work helped direct the floodwaters away from people, away from properties, and helped to protect, which is the goal of this project. Given the magnitude of this storm event, we’re happy to see the impacts have been relatively minimal. The biggest impact, I think, is to this bridge,” said Kali Bronson, Stormwater Program Compliance Lead.
The project was not quite complete, so parts of the creek were still too deep and narrow, making floodwaters move at a dangerously fast speed. Engineers are still determining the extent of damage to the watershed project, which was expected to be completed in two to three weeks, but now could take until the end of the year.
The county hopes to start bridge reconstruction by the spring of 2026. The Village of Tijeras is also asking for volunteers to help clear debris from blocked culverts.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
