MERCEDES, Texas — Laura Alvarado has lived in Mercedes almost all of her life. She has endured several floods, but says the last two years have been the worst.
“It floods all the way to the home, it gets from 18 to 24 inches. Me and my family one year tried to leave and we couldn’t get out,” said Alvarado.
Alvarado, like many residents, says past floods have been caused by faulty drainage. This year, she fears floods could get much worse. The levee system running along the Rio Grande has several breaches caused by border wall construction. She says it could potentially be catastrophic.
“If that levee breaks, all that water is gonna come into the cities, double or triple the amount of water. It could be so bad as people dying or drowning,” she said.
Currently the federal government is repairing the breaches at the urging of the Hidalgo County Judge and commissioners who issued a proclamation on April 28 asking the Biden administration to “fill dangerous breaches to Hidalgo County protective levee system.”
Nevertheless, Alvarado fears it may already be too late.
“They won’t be done in time. We are less than two weeks away from hurricane season. We have had already two major thunderstorms and it’s testing the system and we already flooded,” she said.
Alvarado and her husband recently finished cleaning debris and two fallen trees from her yard from the last severe thunderstorm. She’s currently drafting a petition that she will present in a meeting with concerned neighborhoods then deliver it to county and city authorities during the next council meeting.
“Our citizens are tired of being flooded multiple times during the year,” she said, reading the letter aloud.
Alvarado says that they have suffered so much already that sometimes it feels futile and feels government authorities have ignored the community. She previously ran for a position on the Mercedes City Council but she lost. Despite all this she says she can’t give up.
“I feel like there’s no hope for us here in Mercedes. But maybe by me and others advocating, the eyes of authorities will open up and say “hey something needs to be done,” she said.
DHS has not given yet an estimated time of completion for the repairs of the four breaches along the levee system. Hurricane season begins June 1.
