The City of Brownsville is in a standoff with floodwaters.
Mayor Pat Ahumada said the city was expecting just two inches of water, but the six to nine inches that fell this weekend inundated the Rio Grande and resacas leaving some neighborhoods underwater.
"This brings out a very important issue,” Mayor Ahumada said Monday. “That's to dredge our resacas. I asked Brownsville (Public Utilities) to track the flooding, that way, we can continue to beat the drums in Washington to ask for $60 million to dredge these resacas”.
Calle Galaxia and Portway Acres were the two hardest hit areas in the city.
The mayor said crews will continue working as fast and as much as possible to help pump the floodwater out.
"We just can't pump it out fast enough,” Ahumada said. “We're anticipating another five inches of rain."
Residents at Calle Galaxia said there has to be more that can be done.
The flooding threatens their homes, vehicles and their health.
They said they want a retention pond, higher levees - anything to keep the water out of their homes.
Jose Jimenez said he doesn’t like living in the conditions he’s in right now.
He and his family moved in to the neighborhood just two weeks ago, but had he known of the flooding issues- that wouldn’t have happened.
"They should do a little bit more to help the community,” Jimenez said. “As (my neighbor) said, they should open more paths so the water can leave because it gets really bad and there is a lot of kids around here - there's a lot of mosquitoes (also)."
Ahumada said one of the issues with Calle Galaxia is that it is in a very low-lying area.
He said that with so much water, there is only so much the city can prevent.
He also said he hopes residents will understand that despite all that city government does to prevent flooding, they can’t control Mother Nature.
Flood victims seeking refuge can call the City of Brownsville at (956) 504-7405.
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