Flood threatens West Texas border town
Alicia A. CaldwellA levee holding back the swelling Rio Grande near this West Texas border town is in danger of bursting as the river continues to rise.
Presidio Mayor Lorenzo Hernandez said Tuesday night that the river could top the levee designed for a 25-year flood at any time.
"The levee breaking is our biggest concern. What comes after that we'll have to see," said a tired looking Hernandez, who spent part of Tuesday night answering phone calls at City Hall and listening to news reports of flooding to the south, in neighboring Ojinaga, Mexico.
Officials in Presidio, a dusty border town of about 5,000 people some 250 miles down river from El Paso, have been keeping a close eye on the Rio Grande for nearly two weeks. The river started swelling, first breaching its banks and then filling the wide channel between two earthen levees, after a series of storms soaked parts of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, which shares a border with parts of West Texas.
The flood threat prompted officials in Presidio to go door-to-door urging people to leave. They made the same plea from a helicopter. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials also shut down the international bridge connecting Presidio to Ojinaga.
Earlier this week, officials said the evacuation affected about 500 people in the Presidio area.
About 80 people were in a shelter Tuesday night at the town's elementary school.
Presidio Police Chief Marco Baeza said a few older residents living in low-lying areas have opted to stay.
"One said 'I've been here 58 years and nothing's happened before and nothing's going to happen now,'" Baeza said.
The recent rains and flooding is not related to Hurricane Ike, which hit hundreds of miles to the east.
Since the heavy rains, Mexican officials have been forced to release water from the Luis Leon Reservoir into the Rio Conchos, which flows into the Rio Grande not far from Presidio.
Hernandez said he's been told that in Ojinaga, across the rising Rio Grande from Presidio, as much as 10 feet of water has rushed into homes and other buildings nearest the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos.
"Things are pretty rough right now, but I guess they could be worse," Hernandez said Tuesday night. "The water is up to the roofs in Mexico."