Go With The Flow: Flood situation more stable

Water diverted to the regional floodway system continued to flow out into the Laguna Madre Saturday, the rushing water flooding sections of two roadways east of Sebastian.

Still, despite minor levee problems south of Weslaco and near Santa Monica, officials reported no major increase in flooding.

“Things could always change upstream and we really encourage people to stay on top of National Weather Service reports. But things are looking fairly stable right now,” said Sally Spener, spokeswoman for the International Boundary and Water Commission.

In Harlingen, McKelvey Park on the Arroyo Colorado looked like a reservoir Saturday — so much so that people were calling it Lake McKelvey. Many residents were enjoying a unique evening in the park.

A couple dozen people lined the western bank, some with cameras but most with fishing poles. A few trees poked out from the water and a young man was seen swimming toward them in the middle of the stream.

Victor Hernandez, a Harlingen native, brought his two sons and fishing gear. “We come out here every now and then for the kids to play and we’ve never seen this much water, ever,” said Hernandez, 45, a salesman for a Harlingen outdoor power equipment company.

Roberto Saldaña Jr., 26, of Harlingen, normally fishes at Arroyo City. But he took advantage of the high water Saturday.

“This is the first time in a long time that you get a chance to fish when the water is so close to the park,” he said. “Yesterday two different gentlemen caught two alligator gar.

“It’s kind of neat, instead of driving all the way up to Arroyo City. The only bad thing is the mosquitoes.”

Martin Sauceda was in the park with his wife and three children Saturday. He said that on Friday, he could see only the very top of a hike and bike trail sign at the bottom of the park’s slope. Similar signs in the park appear to be about 8 feet tall. The arroyo appeared to have risen by about a foot over night, he said.

“I’ve been passing by here every day. Yesterday, you could see about this much of the sign,” he said, indicating about a foot. “Today, you can’t see it at all.”

High water levels in Willacy County continued to flood portions of FM 507 and FM 1420 that bridge the floodway running south of Sebastian, through Santa Monica and out into the Laguna Madre.

Robert Cruz, 53, parked his truck near the flooded stretch of FM 507 Saturday afternoon, fishing pole in hand, hoping to catch some alligator gar swimming in the floodwaters.

“The last time I saw it like this I was 11 years old,” Cruz said, recalling the tremendous flooding in the wake of Hurricane Beulah four decades ago.

“I’ve been watching this pretty closely,” Cruz said. The flooding, he said, seemed to have leveled off over the past day.

“Right now this is real nice here, I like it,” he remarked. “I know there’s plenty of gar in that water, I can tell you that,” he said.

Willacy County Sheriff Larry Spence said the flow through the floodway seemed to have steadied, and that deputies and emergency management workers continued to monitor the levee system to make sure it would hold.

“There’s nothing too threatening right now, but we’re just keeping in touch with people and watching the water levels,” Spence said.

Saturday, a leaking levee valve diverted attention to the Santa Monica area just east of FM 1420, where crews worked throughout the day to pump seeping water away from a string of homes, Spence and Willacy County Emergency Management Coordinator Frank Torres said. The county called on the IBWC and the state division of emergency management Saturday morning for help in pumping out the area and fixing the leak, Torres said.

“It’s not really a cause for alarm,” Spence said. “We’re hoping to get it fixed within hours,” he said.

Spence said deputies went out and warned the nearby families of possible flooding.

The IBWC expressed concern Saturday that water diverted through the floodway wasn’t draining into the Laguna Madre as rapidly as had been expected, leaving prolonged high water levels near the Santa Monica area. “It’s a little bit of a back-water condition out there right now…That’s one of the areas that we’ve been keeping a close eye on,” Spener said.

Spener said the IBWC had yet to determine why the floodway wasn’t draining at the expected rate, and said, “It’s just not draining as well as we had hoped, and we’re still looking into that.”

Spener also pointed to another minor problem Saturday south of Weslaco, where a levee valve was leaking water out into a nearby neighborhood. As of Saturday afternoon, workers had sealed the leak but were still pumping water out of the area in an effort to keep the flooding from reaching the nearby homes, Spener said.

“These are the types of things that we’re going to be looking for and responding to while we continue to monitor the situation,” Spener said.

Though the water behind Falcon Dam has reached record levels, the amount of water flowing through the floodway is still well within the capacity of the regional levee system, she said.