Dramatic video shows rescue of man as mother pleads for help finding daughter in New Mexico flood

Covered in dirt and submerged in waist-deep mud and debris, a man in Ruidoso, New Mexico, reached his arms up for help as water rapidly flooded around him.

Through an open records request, Scripps News obtained police lapel footage from Ruidoso Police showing the challenging rescue, as floodwaters raged through the community, knocking down power lines and crumpling vehicles.

Rescuers tried to pull the unidentified man to a ledge on higher ground, but they had difficulty lifting him from the thick sludge.

An officer retrieved a rope, and four rescuers used it to pull him to safety. At the same location, a mother who was thrashed by the flood waters, can be seen looking for her 4-year-old child.

"She was with me. I lost track of her in the water," she told a police officer. "We were in an RV."

According to the Village of Ruidoso, three people were killed as a result of the flash flood, including a 4-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy, and a middle-aged man.

"Our hearts are broken for the families who have lost their loved ones in this terrible tragedy," said Mayor Lynn Crawford in a statement on the village website. "The entire Village of Ruidoso extends our deepest sympathy and compassion to these grieving families during this unimaginably difficult time. We are united in our sorrow and our commitment to supporting one another as we face this devastating loss together."

According to Bay Hirschfeld, a spokesperson for the Village of Ruidoso, the woman in the police footage obtained by Scripps News was the mother of the two children who were killed who have since been identified as Charlotte Emery and Sebastian Rowan Trotter.

A GoFundMe page also confirms the children's names.

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"They were camping alongside a small stream of water at an RV park in Ruidoso, NM. They had a fantastic day exploring the town, shopping, getting pizza for lunch, playing soccer, and then came back to start packing up the RV to leave," said Hank Wyatt, the GoFundMe organizer who also said he is the brother of the children's father.

"They received no warning or alerts on their phone when suddenly water began to flood the campsite at a rapid pace," he wrote. "The RV began to fill up with water before they could even step out of the door. Their efforts to escape the RV and seek refuge failed. As the water got more and more violent, the RV was nearly half way filled with water when the wall of the RV cracked in half and the mother and kids were sucked into the water. Sebastian (parent) dove into the water after the kids."

A separate GoFundMe page lists the man who died as Benjamin Timothy Feagin.

The Village of Ruidoso has not confirmed the identity of the man who was killed.

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"(He) ran to his truck, but by the time he got in, the water was a foot high and it washed the truck into a tree," the GoFundMe page said.