{"id":18535,"date":"2026-10-27T21:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=18535"},"modified":"2026-10-27T21:33:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T21:33:06","slug":"how-new-mexico-raft-guides-rescued-pets-during-historic-floods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=18535","title":{"rendered":"How New Mexico Raft Guides Rescued Pets During Historic Floods"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Published October 27, 2026 03:00PM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ryan Dudgeon emerged\u00a0from waist-deep quicksand, her raspberry-pink drysuit caked in desert mud. The Farmington, New Mexico, whitewater paddler towed a 14-foot inflatable raft through flooded streets with a team of fellow guides on October 23. The group was searching\u00a0for pets left behind after historic flooding devastated the Four Corners region the night before, destroying homes and displacing thousands.<\/p>\n

Using their swiftwater rescue skills and drysuits, Ryan and her volunteer team spent several days rescuing animals stranded in flooded homes, locked in corrals, or trapped in submerged kennels and cages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are the only ones in the county qualified to do anything like this, aside from Search and Rescue,\u201d Ryan, 41, told Outside<\/em>\u00a0over the phone. Ryan\u00a0and her husband Cody, 46, own Desert River Guides<\/a>, a rafting company that leads trips down the\u00a0Animas and San Juan Rivers. The couple has lived in Farmington their entire lives and said they have never experienced flooding like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe aren\u2019t used to natural disasters here,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cNone of us know what to do because we\u2019ve never dealt with something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

With guidance from the Farmington Regional Animal Shelter and the City of Farmington, the Dudgeons turned their commercial rafting warehouse and equipment into a temporary emergency animal shelter and holding area for lost pets after the floods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have kittens and puppies all over the place,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cMore and more are showing up now that the waters have receded and other people are finding lost animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the Four Corners region, community members have been displaced<\/a> and their homes decimated<\/a>; rockslides have closed trails like Bridal Veil Falls<\/a> in Utah, and Lake Powell has risen at least ten feet<\/a> since the flooding began.<\/p>\n

Ryan believes their guide shop will store animals\u2014chickens, cats, dogs, rabbits, and more\u2014for weeks to come.<\/p>\n

Ryan Dudgeon and a group of volunteers wade through mud-deposited streets to rescue animals locked in homes<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Dudgeon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paddling in Where Others Couldn\u2019t Go<\/h2>\n

Over the phone, Ryan described the heartbreak of\u00a0watching floodwaters swallow her home<\/span>\u00a0on October 23. She knew she had to do something to help her community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got in our dry suits, loaded up the van with the boat, and we went out there,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

The group paddled their raft through inundated neighborhoods and, where possible, walked the streets while towing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople needed help,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople were scared. They left their homes, but they also left their pets locked inside their houses, which is why we went out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dudgeons rescued dozens of animals, pets, and livestock that were left behind. Farmington is an agricultural community<\/a> with thousands of ranches and farms in the surrounding San Juan County. Ryan recalled trying to reach a goat farm and hearing the animals bleating in the distance. The team of paddlers was unable to reach the goats and, like many other livestock, the herd drowned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were dead animals everywhere,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cPeople were calling us, and we went out with our boats and gear, and we spent two days trying to rescue animals in rafts and float people out. Just as much as we could help, just as much as we were allowed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deceased pigs, horses and goats floated through the streets alongside housing debris and logjams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard them drowning,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Desert River Guides warehouse has been turned into a short-term emergency animal shelter, housing dozens of dogs, cats, chickens and rabbits<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Dudgeon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historic Destruction Across the Four Corners<\/h2>\n

Longtime residents like the Dudgeons compared the event to the historic 100-year floods<\/a> of October 1911, when historic rains tore through the Four Corners region. The 2026 floods have been so bad that, Ryan said, rumors circulated through town that a nearby dam had broken. In reality, it was just flooding from swollen rivers.<\/p>\n

Rivers are measured in cubic feet per second (CFS). One cubic foot is roughly the size of a basketball. The Animas River, for example, usually runs between 1,000 and 4,000 CFS, but on October 26 it was pushing 12,000 CFS\u2014roughly that many basketballs pummeling through one point every second. The Dudgeons usually raft the nearby San Juan River at around 500 CFS. During peak floods, it surged to 33,500 CFS in Farmington.<\/p>\n

Many residents\u00a0have lost everything. A friend is staying with her now after the floodwaters inundated his house, she said. Now it\u2019s filled with nearly one foot of mud.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can\u2019t go home, and he doesn\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cHe has nowhere else to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upstream, mobile home parks in Bloomfield and areas downriver through Shiprock and the Navajo Nation suffered severe inundation, with homes washed off foundations and submerged to the rooflines.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrailers were moved off the foundations and houses were taken downstream\u2014they\u2019re stuck on bridges or on the side of the river,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cThey\u2019ve lost everything. I can\u2019t imagine how long this recon will take. It\u2019s literally unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Floodwaters also left behind thick layers of contaminated river mud that make re-entering inundated homes nearly impossible, Ryan said. Sewage treatment plants have been flooded, further contaminating waterways in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of us know what to do because we\u2019ve never dealt with something like this,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Dudgeon photographed in her drysuit, covered in mud after being sucked into quicksand (Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Dudgeon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Whitewater Warehouse Turned Into an Ark<\/h2>\n

Shortly after the Dudgeons opened their warehouse to the animals, officials placed the shop under an immediate flood watch around 10 P.M. on October 23.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe moved out all of our rafts onto the bus, and started moving animal crates in,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cAnd then all of a sudden, after we got everything perfectly set up, officials called us around 10 P.M. on a Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her friends and colleagues called and showed up to help move the animals and their things out of the building to another on higher ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just the most incredible community involvement, and I will never be able to thank these people enough,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIt was just the most incredible community involvement, and I will never be able to thank these people enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following morning, she said up to four inches of rain fell within ten minutes, flooding the town.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have my whole life in that building,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cRain was just pouring down the hills, all toward our shop and river. The river was breaching its banks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ryan
Ryan Dudgeon making breakfast for volunteer rescuers and animal caretakers outside of the Desert River Guides warehouse<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy of Ryan Dudgeon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Community Banding Together<\/h2>\n

For now, the warehouse houses not only rescued animals but also those keeping them safe. People stay at the warehouse, sleeping on the guide company\u2019s camping gear, using the pool table and grill, and cooking breakfast on the camp stoves.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a rafting company, and now it\u2019s a rafting company turned into an animal shelter,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Ryan, an elementary teacher and parent of two, said her next job is to be a face of hope for her classroom and the two children she and her husband share.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in the community has come together. I\u2019ve never seen anything like this or experienced anything like this,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cTomorrow, everybody\u2019s going back to school, and as a fourth-grade teacher, I\u2019m just going to try to make my kids\u2019 lives feel as normal as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though she hasn\u2019t convinced Cody to adopt any of the displaced animals, she said the couple did get a chance to paddle the Animas River at its record-breaking flow, just for fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you, best float of my life,\u201d Ryan said.<\/p>\n


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Published October 27, 2026 03:00PM Ryan Dudgeon emerged\u00a0from waist-deep quicksand, her raspberry-pink drysuit caked in desert mud. The Farmington, New Mexico, whitewater paddler towed a 14-foot inflatable raft through flooded streets with a team of fellow guides on October 23. The group was searching\u00a0for pets left behind after historic flooding devastated the Four Corners region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wild-living"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}