State Police have identified a man who died after being swept away by flood waters while traveling through southern New Mexico's Sierra County.
State Police Sgt. Emmanuel Gutierrez said Sunday that the man was 53-year-old Steven Elsley of Phoenix.
Elsley's partially submerged rental car was found in a rugged area nearly a mile from a state road in Ash Canyon near Elephant Butte Dam. His body was inside.
Gutierrez says investigators believe Elsley died after his car was washed into a ravine and carried away.
Weather forecasters have been issuing flood warnings and flash flood watches for the past few days as series of thunderstorms have dumped record amounts of rain over some parts of the state.
Flood waters have breached dams, inundated homes, closed roads and forced evacuations.
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