Flooding to last at least two more weeks, officials say

Even without additional rainfall, Hidalgo County officials expect floodwaters to continue to move through the area for at least the next two weeks.

About 2 inches of rainfall across the county this week has overflowed irrigation ditches, flooding nearby homes in the Progreso area and threatening U.S. Highway 281 in Pharr, said Tony Peña, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

“That water is still flowing, still moving and finding the low spots and ponding up,” he said.

At least 75 pumps have been set up in trouble spots where floodwater has pooled near the spillway that has been directing water from Hurricane Alex to the Laguna Madre for several weeks, officials said.

The ditches normally drain into the same spillway, which is conveying floodwater for the first time in more than two decades, Peña said. Gates that allow excess irrigation water to drain have been closed, because the water outside the spillway is lower than the water inside the spillway, meaning more flooding would occur if they were left open.

“The normal gravity flow doesn’t go, so therefore we end up with localized flooding,” Peña said.

Despite the continued flooding, waters are not expected to rise even if more rain falls, he said.

That’s because the International Boundary and Water Commission — the binational agency charged with flood control along the Rio Grande — reduced the flow of water released from Falcon Dam to 49,000 cubic feet per second, officials said in a statement.

Situated on the Rio Grande near the Starr County town of Falcon Heights, the dam had been releasing 60,000 cubic feet per second earlier this week. A cubic foot of water is about 7.5 gallons.

Residents affected by the floods may not see much of a drop in area water levels, however, as Mexican officials are set to release more floodwater from the San Juan River, which feeds into the Rio Grande downstream from Falcon Dam.

County officials said anyone with flooding problems should report them to their city government, county precinct office or emergency management office. People are advised to stay off the levees and not to drive over any water pump hoses or tamper with gates near the levees.