People who are not from the Southwest or the western half of Texas and visiting these places like Carlsbad Caverns or any desert monuments, please be aware that rainfall there is not like what you're used to back home. They don't have soft clay or loam which gets slowly waterlogged until it can't hold anymore and *then* flooding begins. We have caliche and rock, so the water doesn't penetrate much, it just flows down to the lowest points and then filters down into aquifers. And we get a LOT of rain at once, like an entire year in Seattle in the space of an hour, which is why flash floods are so dangerous, especially in canyon country where the pressure is concentrated by the restricted space. Believe those flood markers you see by low water crossings. You might think it won't ever rain again sometimes, and then those markers will be completely submerged in minutes. And don't ever camp in a ravine or riverbed. Those boulders were not dropped off there by Manny's Landscaping Service.

My family and I were part of the 100+ stuck at the caverns during this. Very grateful the rangers kept us safe. Great video to show us what was happening as it happened.

We were there, two of the folks stuck at the top! They evacuated us right from the cave and we got a few minutes out of the park before turning a corner and seeing a massively flooded road down below and a bunch of people doing K turns. Back to the top, watched the bats from the parking lot, and around midnight we caravan'd out. Crazy stuff! Amazing footage here, glad you made it out safe!

To think, you’re not even a storm chasers! You captured the feeling of impending doom as video taping the rapid stream of water, mud and muck become a river, then approach you in your vehicle just ahead of it! You made my heart race at times! Nice of you to share your incredible footage, but please be safe!

I'm no stranger to flash floods, up here in northern NM, but this footage you captured, I've never seen anything like it - bravo and bravé, lol. Truly fantastic being able to follow the lead of it, and thru such a beautiful canyon. Watched it twice at once, just mesmerized by the power. Thanks for filming this, wow.

It's amazing how fast this water is flowing without any inkling of slowing or stopping. Nature is a beautiful yet scary phenomenon.

Me being a native New Mexican. I will give you some advice. It's the the dry desert UNTIL, it rains. And when it does, it pours! Always pay attention to weather reports and watch the sky and head to higher ground

I live in Carlsbad the park service should have known in advance that the canyon was going to flood. It was clear on the weather channel we where going to get alot of rain. No stranger to these floods. You’re a brave soul for staying in that canyon once it started to flood. 10 minutes is all it takes imagine what it looks like when we get rain for a day or 2

The wash area you were at at the end was definitely designed exactly for this sort of thing and it did it’s job perfectly. I’m glad you were able to capture this and also that you were safe and smart through all of it. This was incredible footage, thank you for capturing it for those of us that would never see something like this. The amount of water was jaw dropping!

Wow that water is moving fast!! And you can see that some time in the past,.. that whole canyon was flooded. The canyon sides have been eroded away some time in the past by a huge flood water.

Monsoon season in the Southwest is no joke. Lived in Albuquerque, NM for 4 years. When it rains, it RAINS. You get several inches in a very, very short period of time. There's videos about the arroyos on interstate 25 and 40 looking exactly like this. Several of them were actually damaged from the amount of rain they got this year.

This was almost like a nightmare where some kind of blob is chasing you and trying to gobble you and your car up! This was incredible and once in a lifetime footage! You should get a YouTo0b award of some kind!!

Wow! This is quite a video you captured! I did hear about it on NPR radio. I live in the Southwest boot heal part of New Mexico. We had a bridge wash out the other day so now there isn’t a way for the people in the little towns of Cliff and Gila and Buckhorn to get to Silver City to buy groceries or go to work etc. Even school had to be canceled at Cliff since half the students come from Silver City

Thank you for the video, when I was a kid in northern NM flash floods were a family outing,.. to see running water in a normally dry wash.

I have never seen a flash flood like that! WOW! Amazing footage Shawn! I was scared just watching this unfold.

I know this road well, we live about 85-90 mi from the Caverns & have been there many times. So glad you weren't washed over the side of that road. Ravines through there are VERY deep & dangerous!

6:00 is exactly how people die. They see what looks like a small stream crossing the road, and assume they can just drive right through it. However, a car can float in just a few inches of water, and gets swept to the side. If the car tips or rolls or gets stuck in a low area, it fills with water very fast. Some people not from the area just assume that they would have built a bridge if it was a big deal, and drive right in without realizing how deep it is. If you are in a canyon formed over time by flowing and eroding the ground, pay attention, lol.

Having lived in that area for decades (ten years in Carlsbad and eleven years just at the base of the caverns in White's City) I can honestly say that what you're seeing is normal. Stick around and you'll truly experience a "flood". That's child's play in comparison to what I've seen there.

If you’re in the desert downhill from where the rain falls, stay on high ground! I’ve had to scramble up the sides of a wash, thank heavens the floods are loud like a hissing freight train! Great job taking advantage of your situation & sharing the experience!

I was camping there first week of May this year on my bike. Spent four days in a tent. This gives me a whole new perspective. Excellent footage my man you have some nerves of steel.

My friend was stuck right in the middle of mud slide, it was so close it made his tires come off the rims. Him and his family escaped through the windows of his pickup. Made it down to the train tracks and by the grace of God,caught a ride on the train to a small town then a big crew with Cats,front end loaders, dump trucks, and a large back hoe. Took him back to his truck. It pushed 3/4 ton pickup almost to the train tracks about 1/4 mile. It ruined his brakes,he got lucky. Ya never know about nature.

I was born and raised in Phx. I have seen some flash floods many times. That has to be the largest and fastest moving flash flood I have seen in 58 years. Wow!!! Great footage..

I lived in NM for 5 yrs. This is crazy, Carlsbad only gets about 13 inches of rain a year. Where I lived in Alamogordo, we were lucky to get 6 inches a year. What an amazing video.

This is awesome, dude. I did a lot of backpacking in Carlsbad Caverns NP and never saw it flash flood like that. Thanks for the upload.

The amount of water and volume filling completely dried areas is amazing. Thanks for showing this, I'd never imagine it getting so forceful in such a short time. Glad you stayed ahead of it.

Glad you are safe! That was a monster of a flow, and thank you for recording as much as you did!

This is the most incredible piece of footage. If you have ever wanted to see what really happens with a flash flood- here it is. I hope some news stations paid thusguy for some of this footage.

Just another day in the land of enchantment. You learn to stay out of the arroyo. That's why they put a culvert under the highway. It can rain 20-30 miles away and be a clear beautiful day for you. Always check the weather....

Wow! You don't know that the sky has a river flowing through it and the sky can dump tons of water on a mountain or at a high altitude? I was blown away when I heard a meteorologist say that there is a river of water in the sky! There are times after a space launch there is rain fall in some area of the country. Because of all the high temperatures, the water evaporates and the sky at some point, sheds all that water. And the cycle continues to repeat!

Good lord, I was hollering at the video, Go, Go, Go! I know you made it out safe, thank God, but what a nail biter. Glad you're ok. Amazing footage.

I've watched many videos, but yours is by far the scariest. The footage you have of the huge wall of water coming straight at you is unlike anything I've ever seen. Unreal.

I've watched a lot of flash floods on KZfaq and I gotta say dude you got a gold mine of a video here. Glad you remained safe throughout.

I was raised around flash flood country. This is just the norm. Nothing to panic about. Water has alway run down hill.

Amazing flash flood footage, great job! Oh yeah, you can hear a flash flood before you see it. You witnessed---and recorded---a marvelous example of life in New Mexico. A storm cell parks itself up-canyon and drops it's moisture. You're watching the after-effects!

Dude, That was so cool that you filmed that flood. I was just there in May with my 3 kids. This was awesome to see your video after we were just there. Very cool. Thanks.

We were there Saturday, finished the tour about 2:30, saw the storm coming and left. We were shocked to hear about the flooding in our hotel that night. Incredible footage you got there!

Totally incredible video. What you have is rare and amazing! Right place at right time!

Thanks to not having a good rain jacket so you couldn’t go hiking, you’re alive. Thanks for the video. Great job!

Wicked stuff. Good footage though. Crazy how fast these things can accumulate and run like that! Thanks for sharing! I watched another video of a family getting caught up in a flash flood deep in a canyon with a bunch of other people. Never mind how crazy the flood was, the rescue teams were there within hours with tractors and helicopters. Just amazing the society we live in.

Amazing footage!! You were right in front of the action. Thankfully you are safe. I hope the people stuck on top can get rescued.

This is truly the only way for it to rain in the desert. When it only rains a bit, the water evaporates way too quickly. When we get this much at once, the water stays and goes where it needs to.

Where did this rain come from ? Look at a topo, highlight the ridges that form the watershed feeding the canyon, that's the catchment area that can send water through it. Thx for stickin' with it, it is so rare being so big, cheers 🍺

The length of your video underscored the power. We all benefit from your diligence. Kudos!

This is monsoon season in the desert Sw, Do not drive thru these canyons!! Normal operations of mother nature!! Lived in Alamogordo NM for many years and Texas. Be safe for your family and friends and pets, be aware of your surroundings and keep an eye on the weather conditions.

Thank you for taking the time to track it. Fascinating.

Good stuff - thanks for sharing the video. I'm in the UK but have friends in NM & was down at Carlsbad way back in 2006 - had hailstorms.

Wow. Wow. Tremendous video. Scary how quickly this can happen. I was in a flash flood in Warren, Michigan in 2014 - they called it a hundred year flood. We were about to cross a bridge when the river turned into a huge lake and was coming straight at us.Turned the car around and high tailed it out of there.

Amazing footage. Glad you are safe. Thank you for sharing.

Wow ! My Dad & I (back in mid-90s) entered the park with a brief heavy rain thunder & lightning storm but no flooding and a beautiful Rainbow ! Fortunately, we made the last tour of the day going down the shaft route and afterwards the bats remained inside the Cave because of the storm !

Glad you stayed safe. This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Great video! Again, so glad you stayed safe & got this filmed. Awesome!

Amazing capture of this flash flood. Be safe out there.

WOW. Thank you for the Video. Amazing footage. Glad your safe. God bless you

Fantastic job videoing and narrating and staying alive at the same time!

Great vid. Capturing the River as it approached multiple points along the way. Rare to be able to witness and yet be mobile and safety conscious at the same time. We drove through that area to the caverns last year and it was all bone dry of course. Glad the area engineers prepped the elevated roads and high pass throughs under the freeways!

Yep, you the only one that got the video-good job. I was monitoring these storms on weather radar as it happened. Caverns took direct hit. If these storms hit 5-miles further NW, this would have been Carlsbad itself--Which happened last summer. Mike-Carlsbad, NM.

You have recorded one of the most amazing Flash-Floods I have watched to date, great work, glad you used common sense and alert while filming and driving. Looking at 0.29 the section of mountain rock area just above looks to be a weak area with large cracks, could fail sometime in the future. The large crack seems to follow up the mountain below the road. This could have an impact on road above. I think that area should be investigated, since it appears to be located not too far below the above road. One large area lets go, and above area usually follows. Really nice job Shawn.

For whatever reason, floods scare me more than other weather disasters. I was in Carlsbad two years ago and had no idea it could look like this.

Watching that water flowing down at 8:45 with such intensity had my heart pounding 😱. Please stay safe!!

This gave me chills too.. it's something I'd have done too. Thank you. God bless you and protect you..

WOW! Incredible video, thanks for posting, glad you’re safe.

Great capture, you were just ahead of the action. people often underestimate the power of water. Debris often is the cause of pushing road-bridges out of alignment. That is a massive amount of water moving in a very short time.

Well your life is rarely boring. I kept trying to think you to the next curve that was down the road that might get you stuck on a little island. Glad you're safe brother!! miss you!!

Wow to see that instant river form and move like that!

Epic footage of flash flood. Staying with headwaters that long is great!

We were there in mid-June. Awesome footage, brother. Thanks for posting this!

Great video! Glad you stayed ahead of the flood! Hope you have some more adventures but stay safe at the same time.

Amazing keep! Had me on the edge of my chair watching yelling “go go go” yet wanting to see more. Glad you’re safe. Thank you so much!!!

This was a very exciting video. I'm a little familiar with the area and tourist caves. This is so crazy. Thank you for sharing your experience

Wow that is great filming of the flash flooding.watching in real time as its happening.Exciting to watch as it unfolded,thank you for sharing. Thankful you are so vigilant and kept your cool while you filmed. Will be interesting to see the after film. Hope everyone made it out safe.

DUDE!! DUDE!! TOTALLY RADICAL AWESOME 👏 👏👏!! What a phenomenon that you got it filmed, stayed ahead of it, were safe & warned ⚠️ others to boot!! Kudos!! Loved it and appreciate your great filming!! A chance of a lifetime and YOU DID IT!!

I must say you have a pretty big set for staying that close and getting this footage. This is on my "out West" list to visit, can't wait to compare my visit to this. Thanks for sharing it with us. Stay safe my friend. 🙏🙏

Fascinating to see Mother Nature's dangerous fury! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you young man for the wonderful filming. I got more from your video than anything I saw on the news! Glad you were safe.

Thanks for the video,glad you're safe, I have never seen anything like this. My heart would race as you kept in front of the flow.

You captured a really large flash flood. They are not usually so large and wide at the leading edge. Very cool to watch.

Thank you. This is a great life lesson for anyone traveling to parts of the country they’ve never visited before. The more dramatic the landscape, the deadlier it can be. But even calm pasturelands are fraught with tornadoes, lightning storms and wildfires. Nature is alive and changing all the time. Thank you for capturing this intense example of the dangers out west. Well done.

I remember back in the 1980s being in Albuquerque for a business trip and had never seen roadways like they had- extra wide with a channel in the center. Some of the locals explained they were for when they had flash floods. Do they still have those troughs in the center of roadways?

You were lucky to be in a position to video this flash flood. The power of nature.

These Flash Floods In Desert Areas Are Amazing , And Dangerous ! Moab Utah Had The Same Thing Happen This Past Weekend ! I Live Just Across The Utah Colorado Border In Colorado And We Had Heavy Rains Here As Well And It Is Just Now Starting To Dry Out ! Great Video, And Glad To See You Made It Out OK !

Wow. Sometime actuality filming in landscape mode with their phone. This dude is a hero

WOW! You could have been anywhere on your route when you spotted that, it could have gotten really ugly! At the end the “river” was still moving fast but the height had definitely dropped. I’m glad you and your vehicle made it out. Thanks for sharing! 🇨🇦🇺🇸

OMG that was an anxious 25 mins for me. I kept thinking you were gonna leave it too late! Awesome footage. Nature is all powerful.

I’ve seen storm chaser videos before but never a flood chaser video, incredible video, thanks for sharing

Great job filming and keeping ahead of the flow and thank you for the concern for others , shows a true human being🥰much love

Yes, it was a long video, and I watched every single second of it. How SCARY. It's a good thing you are familiar with the area, I would have panicked. 😱 You, seriously, need to get a T-shirt saying you survived that! 😉 I'm glad you did, it COULD have ended much differently.

That is some dangerous stuff . Wife and I and four of our friends were four wheeling in Moab Utah and got in about the same as you we were able to get to high ground with our four wheel jeeps four 4 1/2 hour's we sat .

That’s the best flash flood video I’ve ever seen . Great job and thanks for sharing You definitely need to get more views

Last year I went to visit my brother northwest of San Antonio. We were driving across a bridge, at a narrow ravine, on a nice dry sunny day and I noticed that the water level marker was above bridge. Wrong side, right? I mentioned this to him and he calmly said, "No it ain't". He described the rainy season and pretty much what we are seeing in this clip. Passing over the ravine, it was at least 60' to the creek bed below! New respects, Southwest. And Dude, you can't get closer than that, what footage!

My daughter and I were just there about a week before this happened. I guess we got lucky that we went before this happened or we would have got trapped with the other people. I just showed her the video and she was shocked.

Thank goodness you’re safe!! That’s wild how fast the flash floods rolls by getting bigger and bigger!!🥺🥺

What an amazing video, thank you so much for taking the time to film this scarey scene. That bridge will need shoring up, the next flood may do some damage to the freeway. Glad you made it safely.

A really good video! We live in NM and I recall the the TV coverage. Glad you kept yourself safe. Thanks for sharing.

Great footage! Thank you for sharing this video and you are safe in the disaster!

Last year in June when I was there a flash flood hit and the two bridges that cross the river were closed for part of two days , luckily we were on the side of the river we wanted to be on .

im so happy news stations are using your footage its jaw dropping!! great work

Glad to see you guys are getting the much needed rain

What awesome footage this is better than anything you see on the network news!

That’s incredible, thanks for filming. Glad you were safe

I know this video was made a year ago, but it’s just as important and interesting to watch now. It’s amazing how a small amount of water it up in the hills can come down stream and do so much damage. It was really neat to watch it coming down along the roadside and everything while you were driving. It almost made it look like it was alive and try to get ahead of you to cut you off. Glad you got out of that safely.😊🙏🏻

One of the best flash flood videos on KZfaq.