At least 200 homes were damaged during a deadly flash flood in the mountain village of Ruidoso, and local emergency managers warned Wednesday that number could more than double as teams survey more neighborhoods. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham was among the officials who took an aerial tour of Ruidoso and the surrounding area as they looked to bolster their case for more federal assistance for the community, which has been battered over the past year by wildfires and repeated flooding. The governor said the state has received partial approval for a federal emergency declaration, freeing up personnel to help with search and rescue efforts and incident management. She called it the first step, saying Ruidoso will need much more. “We will continue working with the federal government for every dollar and resource necessary to help this resilient community fully recover from these devastating floods,” she said. An intense bout of monsoon rains set the disaster in motion Tuesday afternoon. Water rushed from the surrounding mountainside, overwhelming the Rio Ruidoso and taking with it a man and two children who had been camping at a riverside RV park. Their bodies were found downstream. One person is still unaccounted for. Lujan Grisham expressed her condolences and wished a speedy recovery for the parents of the 4-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy who were killed. She said it will be an emotional journey. “There are no words that can take away that devastation,” she said. “We are truly heartsick.” Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, whose district includes Ruidoso and surrounding Lincoln County, told reporters more rain is coming and that residents remain at risk. She urged people to follow emergency orders, saying “we cannot lose another life.” A community rebuilds — again Broken tree limbs, twisted metal, crumpled cars and muddy debris remain as crews work to clear roads and culverts wrecked by the flooding. Tracy Haragan, a lifelong Ruidoso resident on the verge of retirement, watched from his home as a surging river carried away the contents of nine nearby residences. “You watched everything they owned, everything they had — everything went down,” he said. A popular summer retreat, Ruidoso is no stranger to tragedy. It has spent a year rebuilding following destructive wildfires last summer and the flooding that followed. This time, the floodwaters went even higher, with the Rio Ruidoso rising more than 20 feet (6 meters) on Tuesday to set a record. Officials said the area received about 3.5 inches (9 centimeters) of rain over the South Fork burn scar in just an hour and a half. “It is such a great town, it just takes a tail-whipping every once in a while,” Haragan said. “We always survive.” Sucked into the floodwaters Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter were camping along a stream with their son Sebastian, 7, and daughter Charlotte, 4, when the campsite began to flood rapidly, the children’s uncle Hank Wyatt said on a verified GoFundMe page for the family. Their RV was nearly halfway full of water when the wall cracked, and Stephanie and the children were sucked into the floodwaters, he said. The father dove into the water and tried to help his son climb up a tree, while the mother and daughter floated downstream, clinging to each other until debris hit and separated them. Both children and two of the family’s dogs, Zeus and Ellie, died. […]