GRANTS, NM— Nearly everyone in the entire city of Grants, New Mexico was affected by the flood last week. Residents and businesses each suffered in some manner. If you had been somewhere else and visited the city the next day, it was obvious from the mud lining the main streets, and the city work crews in those same areas, that heavy rains had paid a visit.
While you are exchanging anecdotes with your friends about where you were during the worst part of the downpour, so am I. Here are two of them, maybe you have already heard these.
Patricia Duffy, owner of Bella’s Boutique on West Santa Fe Avenue, wants people to know that the Grants, New Mexico community experiences natural disasters the same as other places in the country. For instance, the one we just had.
While on her way home that Friday, June 21st, she misjudged the small streams on Nimitz Avenue in front of Allsups. She thought she could cross them, it looked safe, and her fullsize SUV gave her a feeling of security. Unfortunately, it was a false sense. Her vehicle stalled. Then when the motor got wet it completely died and she lost control.
The usually feisty and bold Duffy couldn’t open her car’s doors because the sensors were also affected, and dead. The windows could be opened, and she climbed out of the car and slid into the moving, waist-deep water.
Holding her purse over her head (because a girl wouldn’t leave her purse!), she tried to remain brave, but the usually resourceful woman was in a situation. What to do? And then she saw a man at the curb, and he said to her, “Come to me, focus, I got you.”
Duffy was in tears by then, afraid of the power of the current, but she walked toward the stranger. She had said a prayer and felt it had been answered when she saw her rescuer. When she finally reached him, he kindly gave her a ride home. Her vehicle was totaled and underwater.
“Isn’t it wonderful that people come to each other's aid in a tragedy?” Duffy thought gratefully.
They shook hands and she told him, “I hope we meet again under better circumstances.” But that is unlikely as the stranger told her he is not from here.
When her husband came home he said, “I’m glad you’re safe. Material things can be replaced.”
The next day, when he saw the totaled SUV, he realized how serious the situation had been.
Duffy told me that she is typically a cautious person. She realizes that what she experienced could happen to anyone, but “I never take water for granted, that’s what I learned.”