Flooding Causes City Leaders to Re-evaluate Drainage Infrastructure

by Tony Vindell/LFN

The recent flooding caused by the two downpours in mid-June turned several streets in Los Fresnos into raging rivers.

Although it’s nearly impossible for any city in this part of South Texas to handle so much rain coming down so fast, the city will look into improving its drainage system.

In the Los Fresnos area, nearly 14.5 inches of rainfall was reported in the city and its surroundings to the point of flooding several homes.

“There is no way to prevent a flood as it happened last week,” Mayor Polo Narvaez said last Monday.

“But we are going to start looking into how to fix this ongoing problem.”

He said city streets such as Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Canal and Nogal tend to flood the most.

“I heard water went into several houses,” he said.

“We need to start working to improve this situation.”

According to weather volunteers who report rain precipitation to the National Weather Service office in Brownsville, Los Fresnos received 14.5 inches of rain during four days.

Narvaez said that kind of precipitation will create flooding no matter what.

He said the city needs to do something similar to what it did several years ago around O’Reilly which used to be the area that flooded the most.

“We have annexed new areas,” the mayor said, “therefore, the need for better urban planning is there.”

Narvaez said the Lower Rio Grande Development Council has provided some funding before and will make contact with the organization soon.

But City Commissioner Juan Muñoz believes the problem with flooding could be alleviated if officials pay more attention to the drainage ditch off North Arroyo Boulevard.

“The city hardly sends crews to clean the ditch,” he said. “The water backs up when it reaches the trash-filled city’s drainage ditch.”