Storms, flooding wallop Rio Grande Valley
Hundreds rescued from rising waters; disaster declared
McALLEN — Even though McAllen resident Jeanne Levy brushed off first responders’ initial evacuation requests from the 4500 block of Westway Avenue on Thursday, the 89-year-old knew when it was time to leave.
“The rain opened my front door — Wham!” she said, imitating the noise of the water and debris rushing into her home. “I was dumbfounded because I’m from New Orleans. I’ve never seen hard rain like that in my life — not even Katrina. It was a nightmare.”
The Rio Grande Valley was slammed with another round of thunderstorms Thursday, leaving portions of an already devastated region under several feet of floodwater for the second straight day, prompting Gov. Greg Abbott to declare a state of disaster for Hidalgo County.
Included in the governor’s declaration were Cameron, Willacy, Aransas, Nueces and San Patricio counties. Mayors of Hidalgo County’s largest cities — McAllen, Mission and Edinburg — had declared states of emergency for their respective cities before the governor’s announcement.
Mission Mayor Armando O’Caña Sr. was the first to make the declaration Thursday morning after residents awoke to significant parts of the city underwater. In a letter to the governor, O’Caña stated the situation was “of such severity and magnitude that an effective response is beyond the capability of the city of Mission to control.”
Mayor Jim Darling declared a state of emergency for the city of McAllen a few hours later, followed by Mayor Richard Molina for Edinburg. These cities, including smaller municipalities such as Alton, Palmview, La Joya and Hidalgo, were under flash flood warnings well into the afternoon.
The disaster declaration, which was issued at 2:17 p.m., authorizes the use of all available state and local resources “necessary to cope with this disaster” and gives agencies more flexibility to use these resources at their disposal.
Levy was one of hundreds from across western Hidalgo County taken to safety Thursday. First responders from various state and local agencies used an assortment of vehicles — boats, dump trucks and helicopters — to rescue homeowners and drivers from the rising water.
Firefighters lifted Levy onto a flat-bottom boat, then took her by bus to the McAllen Salvation Army, which took in more than 90 evacuees.
As many as 30 main roads were closed due to flooding at some point Thursday, and the city distributed more than 1,800 sand bags to residents.
McAllen shattered rainfall records Thursday morning with an estimated 10 inches of rain, according to the National Weather Service. NWS meteorologist Matthew Brady said the flooding actually prevented the agency from reaching its rain gauges to obtain official rainfall totals.
The previous record for rain in McAllen on June 21 was 1.4 inches, one-seventh of the precipitation seen in the last eight hours, Brady said.
In Mission alone, more than 300 people were rescued from cars and homes after about 7 inches of rain saturated the city between 6 and 11 a.m., City Manager Martin Garza said.
Evacuees were eventually taken to Veterans Memorial High School in Mission, which is serving as a 24-hour shelter operated by the Red Cross.
Temporary shelters also opened in Alton, with about 60 people being taken to a site at Alton Memorial Jr. High School.
The Texas National Guard and Border Patrol agents assisted law enforcement and emergency assistance agencies to rescue motorists and homeowners.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s search and rescue team, in addition to regular agents, were deployed to the Weslaco and Mercedes area Wednesday and conducted more than 100 rescues, agent Marcelino Medina said.
CBP agents were mostly deployed to the McAllen and Mission areas Thursday, and the agency did not have rescue numbers available as of press time.
Brownsville has had about 9.5 inches of rain over the last three to four days, Brady said. Brownsville typically gets 1.61 inches of rain for the first three weeks of June.
Farther north, Corpus Christi has received 9.92 inches of rain in the last three days, with a total of 10.02 inches since June 1, according to the NWS. Normal rainfall for Corpus Christi in June is 3.36 inches.