Officials ID 3 flood victims as West Texas family members

Jul. 27—The body of a third member of a West Texas family killed Thursday in fast-moving floodwaters in Tecolote Canyon, northwest of Las Vegas, N.M., was found late Tuesday morning.

The three died when they were swept away during monsoon rains in mountainous terrain scorched by the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire. All three members have been identified.

San Miguel County sheriff's deputies and the county fire chief found the body of Jimmy Chris Cummings, 62, who had gone missing amid the flash flood that also killed his wife, Linda Jane Cummings, 62, and her mother, 84-year-old Betty Greenhaw, the sheriff's office said.

The family members were first identified by KCBD-TV in Lubbock, Texas.

The women's bodies were discovered in Tecolote Creek floodwaters Thursday afternoon near their truck, which also had been swept from the cabin, Sheriff Chris Lopez said Tuesday, confirming their identities.

But Jimmy Chris Cummings remained missing for days. New Mexico State Police, the New Mexico National Guard, a volunteer search and rescue group, and the San Miguel County Sheriff's Office began looking for him Thursday. His body finally was found around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday in Tecolote Creek near the cabin, according to a news release issued by the sheriff's office.

Lopez said his body was found within debris left by the flood.

Their cabin was destroyed, he added.

Other members of the Hale County, Texas, family could not be reached for comment.

The Cummingses' daughter, Michelle Post, told KCBD-TV her family had owned the cabin in Tecolote Canyon on Camp Blue Haven property for more than 60 years. The cabin was her parents' and grandmother's "favorite place in the world" to spend time with family, she said.

In an effort to help fund Camp Blue Haven, those running the youth camp began offering 100-year leases for parcels. Post's family had signed such a lease in 1965, KCBD-TV reported.

Post told the news station all of her cousins had been baptized at the cabin.

Linda Jane Cummings was found four miles from the cabin, KCBD-TV, while her mother was found about a half-mile away. The truck was found buried outside the cabin.

Greenhaw's son Greg told KCBD-TV the family cabin had been affected by low-level flooding in the past, and they had used sandbags to mitigate damage.

They had never encountered a flood as dangerous as the one that hit last week, he said.

After battling the state's largest and most devastating wildfire for three months in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, public safety officials had braced for the summer monsoon, which threatened to bring potentially deadly floodwaters to the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon burn scar — an area that stretches for more than 530 square miles.

For weeks, residents avoided catastrophic flooding. The three deaths during Thursday's storm system were the first fatalities tied to the fire.

More storms in the forecast this week could cause more dangerous flooding.

The National Weather Service in Albuquerque held a news briefing Monday in which meteorologist Scott Overpeck warned even a "quick 1 or 2 inches" of heavy rain could cause a flash flood.

"This week is going to be another one of those weeks where we have to be on our toes days in and day out," he said.