Upper Valley floodwater receding, but more rainfall expected

DONNA — Floodwater is receding in the Mid-Valley after severe thunderstorms hit Hidalgo County on Monday, but rain clouds threaten to develop again over the region.

Flooding was particularly bad in Alamo and Donna, said George Garrett, Weslaco’s emergency management coordinator.

“There was flooding along Frontage Road, as well as Val Verde Road and Business 83 in Donna,” he said.

Garrett said there were a couple of road closures Monday, but all routes had been re-opened by Tuesday morning.

“We got hit really hard yesterday,” Garrett said Tuesday. “Two areas in Weslaco are still without power.”

He said 268 homes near South Bridge Avenue had no power. Another 365 near South Sixth Street also were without electricity. American Electric Power expected to have service restored by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

AEP officials reported more than 20,000 customers were without power at the peak of the storm, with McAllen, Mission, Pharr and Weslaco most affected by the outages. As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, that number had been reduced to about 400 customers.

“We have all of our workers out there working solely on restoration,” said AEP employee Silvia Medrano. Crews were to continue working until late Tuesday night if needed.

Meanwhile, Weslaco had some flooding between Sixth and Eighth streets, but the water had receded by noon Tuesday.

Donna, however, still had a significant amount of flooding Tuesday afternoon.

On Angie Street, Janie Rico’s elderly mother had to be carried out of her home Monday night.

“My brother had to come in the middle of the night and pick her up,” Rico said. “She’s an elderly woman and shouldn’t have to be dealing with this.”

The street, in a low-lying area near Val Verde Road and Business 83, was still covered in about a foot of water Tuesday afternoon.

Juan de Dios Gonzalez has lived on the same street for three years and said the flooding was worse than when Hurricane Dolly hit in 2008. He attributes it to the construction near his home, where he says the city is installing a sewer system.

Bulldozers there were half submerged in water.

Rene Zamora works with Closner Construction Co., the contractor in charge of completing the job. He said the company started installing the system in August, but the weather is making it difficult for them to finish by their June deadline.

Donna City Manager Oscar Cuellar doesn’t think the flooding was caused by the work being done.

“The construction had nothing to do with the flooding,” he said Tuesday. “It’s the 6 inches of rain that fell over the area yesterday that caused it.”

The project is expected to be completed within a month and a half, Cuellar said.

A couple of streets over from there, David Martinez, whose father owns Val Verde Flea Market near the area, was up early Tuesday pumping water out of the business. He said they’re used to it and were prepared.

“Every time it rains, this happens,” he said. “We have a couple of businesses, so we have pumps to help us get through this.”

Martinez was unsure if the flea market would open today.

“It all depends on the weather,” he said.

Meteorologist Mike Castillo, with the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Brownsville, said there was nothing on the radar as of Tuesday afternoon, but he predicted something would develop over the area later in the evening.

“It’s hard to say if the whole area is going to be rained on,” Castillo said. “But there is a 60 percent chance of rain over the region.”

Garrett, the emergency management coordinator, said there was not much they could do but wait.

“We’re taking it as it comes,” he said. “We always have a response ready.”