A 16-year-old in Socorro County risked his life to rescue relatives trapped in rushing floodwaters, earning praise for his bravery.
SOCORRO COUNTY, N.M. —
Severe flooding in Socorro County forced evacuations and left residents scrambling for safety, with a 16-year-old stepping up to save his family from rushing waters.
Daniel Frazier and his son, Tristan, received a call that their relatives’ truck had become stuck in floodwaters while evacuating. Together, they assessed the risks before heading out to help.
“The water was right here between my crotch and my belt. That’s how high it was,” Daniel Frazier said.
Chris Lopez and Tristan’s mother, Rachel, joined the father-son duo in their efforts to rescue Grace Clark and her boyfriend. As fast-moving water pushed them into a barbed wire fence, the group struggled to stay upright.
“It was so rushing so bad. We had to hold each other to stand up, but it was just bad. It’s horrible,” Daniel Frazier said.
Tristan, who is training to become a volunteer firefighter, worked to pull his family members off the fence, but Clark was swept away by the current.
“I had a long jacket on and it’s just getting stuck in the fence and I couldn’t move. I was trying to get my jacket off and I’ve got Grace, and all of a sudden she just floats,” Lopez recounts. “She’s in front of me on the other side of the fence, floating down. And I’m like, ‘How did that happen? Like, how did she get away from me?’” Lopez said.
Clark’s body was found the next day.
Using only the light from emergency vehicles and the moon, Tristan managed to get the others to safety.
“If it wouldn’t have been for Tristan,” Lopez said. “It takes a special kind of a person to get into danger to get somebody else out, and he did it.”
Daniel Frazier said his son is still processing the event.
“It breaks my heart that my son is crying because he can’t save his aunt,” he said. “But yet he saves his [uncles].”
Lopez said he owes Tristan for his safety.
“He’s a young hero and he doesn’t think of himself. He thinks that he’s he failed, but he didn’t,” Lopez added.
