Unsettling video of a house being washed away during catastrophic flash flooding in Ruidoso, New Mexico, has gone viral in recent weeks on TikTok and other platforms.

What's happening?

Throughout July, a spate of destructive flash flooding incidents have occurred in several states — Texas, New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina among them.

On July 8, torrential rain in Ruidoso, New Mexico, caused the Ruidoso River to rise to dangerous heights, not long after the area was devastated by two wildfires. Three people, two of whom were children, were swept downstream and killed.

CBS News (@cbsnews) shared a now-viral video, captured by Ruidoso resident Kaitlyn Carpenter from the balcony of a restaurant.

@cbsnews Flash floods in Ruidoso, New Mexico sent a home drifting down a fast-moving river on Tuesday. According to the USGS's real-time data, water levels at the 30-mile-long Ruidoso River located about 150 miles southeast of Albuquerque were "extremely above" its historic daily averages on Tuesday evening. #news #NewMexico #flood #flashflood #Ruidoso #weather #river ♬ original sound - cbsnews

The clip was only 17 seconds long, and it depicted an entire house being swept downriver, colliding with trees and anything else in the path of the flood. Commenters were as horrified as the video's audible bystanders were.

"The power of that water is unimaginable! Such a scary sight," one user observed. Commenters from Texas expressed solidarity, and many offered prayers.

"That's someone's whole life just floating away," another user lamented. Several users opined that the Earth was "raging at this point" and Mother Nature was "flipping tables."

"Climate change is terrifying," a concise commenter remarked. 

Why is July's spate of flash floods so concerning?

On July 17, NBC News reported that 3,040 flash flood warnings had been issued in the United States between January 1 and July 15 — "the highest number on record," per Iowa State University.

TikTok commenters by and large recognized the flooding for what it was: extreme weather, and as some have begun saying, examples of "unnatural disasters."

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Data for 2025 is still being compiled, but NBC's recent report evidenced an all-time high for annual flooding incidents. 

Climate and weather are two different things, but the former measurably influences the latter. While hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and tornadoes have always occurred, a changing climate supercharges extreme weather — making it necessarily deadlier and more destructive.

According to Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford, that was the case in Ruidoso, where the damage outstripped initial estimates.

"Things have changed. There was a lot more damage than what we had assumed and what we thought in the beginning," he admitted.

This uptick in extreme weather isn't happening in a vacuum, either. At the same time, cuts to the disaster management agency FEMA, the National Weather Service, and NOAA severely hampered Americans' ability to prepare for and recover from extreme weather.

What can we do about it?

The absence of critical forecasting data and FEMA's uncertain future is unprecedented, and individual awareness of critical climate issues is more important than ever.

In addition to contacting lawmakers to call for the restoration of these services, emergency preparedness can save critical minutes when extreme weather prompts a sudden evacuation.

Packing a "go bag" and creating a hurricane survival kit are steps nearly anyone can take to prepare to either move quickly or shelter in place.

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