SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
First, there was the wildfire, then the flash floods. Now Las Vegas, N.M. - population 13,000 - can't shake a drinking water crisis. NPR's Kirk Siegler reports.
KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: After prescribed fires set by the U.S. Forest Service accidentally became New Mexico's largest ever wildfire in 2022, the last thing the town of Las Vegas needed was another disaster. And yet, the dreaded came anyway this June, when monsoon season arrived early here.
YOLANDA CRUZ: And this isn't even a river. This is an arroyo.
SIEGLER: Flash flooding sent toxic debris from the wildfire burn scar into the Gallinas River - Las Vegas' water supply. It also swept away dumpsters, propane tanks, cars. Yolanda Cruz says people here weren't ready.
CRUZ: Sandbags - one row of sandbags - 20 sandbags - isn't going to help. Do you see those Hesco baskets?
SIEGLER: Yeah.
CRUZ: They all came down. That whole place was flooded again.
SIEGLER: Cruz lives outside of town in the charred forests beneath Hermit's Peak. The recent floods tested her nerves. Like an untold number of her neighbors, she's still waiting for FEMA aid from the 2022 wildfire.
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SIEGLER: Her septic system and well burned. And today, she's still paying out of pocket to fill $5,000 cisterns her family had to buy for drinking water and cooking.
CRUZ: When the disaster first hit, President Biden came by, and he flew over the area, and he said, don't worry. This was caused by the federal government, and we're going to make this whole.
SIEGLER: Cruz remembers people cheering. FEMA was coming to make it right. After all, the federal government started the fire. Soon after, Congress allocated nearly $4 billion to victims, ordering FEMA to distribute the money within 180 days after people filed a claim. Today, Cruz's Facebook profile is a logo that says her claim is past 250 days.
CRUZ: I'm trying to be patient. But when I know that the 180 days has passed on almost everyone out here, and FEMA's like, oh, well, let's do a partial; let's throw some money at you, it's not enough to help. It's not enough to make a difference.
SIEGLER: To hear survivors tell it, these last two years have been marked by confusion, disorganization and misunderstanding of rural New Mexico by FEMA. This is one of the poorest parts of the west. Some people don't speak English, and some land ownership here dates back to Spanish colonial times. Jack Rowe's home, along with his best friend's, burned in April of 2022.
JACK ROWE: I think it's just - it's a poor county. It's a - it's Hispanic county. They've got a mindset that poor people want something for nothing, and they're just digging in their heels and not doing anything.
SIEGLER: FEMA officials acknowledge there were stumbles early on after the law passed guaranteeing payouts to fire victims.
TONY ROBINSON: So this was a new program that we stood up from scratch. So writing the regulations - you know, those things and the government take some time.
SIEGLER: Tony Robinson is FEMA's administrator for the region. He says they're hiring more native New Mexicans who understand the local culture. They're also staffing up and holding more workshops on filing claims. But FEMA is also inundated with disasters from new fires in southern New Mexico and flooding in Texas.
ROBINSON: We've made some changes to look at how we estimate damages so that we can make payments more quickly. And we've made tremendous progress since the beginning of the year.
SIEGLER: FEMA says more than $900 million has now been paid out to more than 5,000 applicants, or about a quarter of the estimated total number of victims. This means $3 billion is still sitting unspent. And Las Vegas is now dealing with flooding, water shortages and the fallout from prolonged business closures. Mayor David Romero says the disaster keeps unfolding.
DAVID ROMERO: It was a fire started by the federal government, and we're dealing with the results and the aftermaths of that.
SIEGLER: Romero thinks one problem is that FEMA is not set up to do long-term recovery. He says residents now affected by flooding are getting turned away at the local FEMA office that's meant to be helping wildfire victims, and some of these people are just giving up.
ROWE: We came from a really poor county, and the electricity goes out here more than it did over there.
SIEGLER: Really?
Jack Rowe, who we heard from earlier, ended up moving to this small house in the foothills east of Albuquerque with best friend Vicki Garland. Her son helped them buy it after more than a year of moving from shelter to shelter and between friends' places.
VICKI GARLAND: Hi.
SIEGLER: Hello.
GARLAND: How are you?
SIEGLER: The three of them are all crammed in here now.
GARLAND: We all have our theories, and I've heard it replicated - other people saying the same thing. It's just like, are they trying to wear us down so we settle for less?
SIEGLER: Lately, Garland says they came to the realization that this is now where they live. They can't go home. It's a travesty, she says, making people who already suffered suffer more.
Kirk Siegler, NPR News, Albuquerque. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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