Flood threatens West Texas border town - Presidio

[sonias]

AAS 9/17/08
Flood threatens West Texas border town
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press Writer

PRESIDIO, Texas — A 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.

Not due to Ike but another potential crisis in Texas. I hope that levee holds in Presidio. :scared:


Sonia

[tammywammy]

1. I hope it holds

:scary:

[WolverineDG]

2. the plane carrying the US & Mexican water officials is missing

The authorities presume that it crashed, but the plane hasn't been located yet. They were up there taking a look at the problem.

:(

dg

[sonias]

3. Texas is suffering some bad water mojo

We're either drowning or suffering a drought. We need a break.

Sonia

[sonias]

4. The plane went down and all aboard are dead

AAS 9/18/08
4 die in plane crash in Mexico
International Boundary and Water Commission chiefs among dead.

By Alicia A. Caldwell
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, September 18, 2008

PRESIDIO — The International Boundary and Water Commission said Wednesday that four people died when the plane they were riding in to check on flooding along the Rio Grande crashed.

The dead included the leaders of the U.S. and Mexican sections of the commission, Carlos Marin from El Paso and Arturo Herrera, of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. Also on board was Jake Brisbin Jr., executive director of the Rio Grande Council of Governments.

The chartered Cessna 421 was piloted by Matthew Peter Juneau, the commission said in a statement.

Very sad news.

Sonia

[maddezmom]

5. Levee failure sends water creeping into W. Texas town

Levee failure sends water creeping into W. Texas town
Associated Press
Sept. 18, 2008, 3:47PM
Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzPRESIDIO — Officials say a levee protecting Presidio from the swelling Rio Grande has failed, and water is creeping through low-lying portions of this normally dusty West Texas border town.

Presidio County attorney Rod Ponton said Thursday that Gov. Rick Perry's office had approved a request to send helicopters that will drop large sand bags around a railroad trestle. Officials are hoping to turn the trestle into a makeshift dam that will help protect the town.

Officials also have received permission to use 300 prisoners to fill in gaps with smaller sand bags. Ponton said the helicopters and prisoners, who are coming from 150 miles away in Fort Stockton, should arrive Thursday evening. Work will continue through the night, he said.

more:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6009644.html

[maddezmom]

6. Crews work to keep flood waters out of Texas town

Crews work to keep flood waters out of Texas town
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL Associated Press Writer © 2008 The Associated Press
Sept. 19, 2008, 5:28AM
Share Print Email Del.icio.usDiggTechnoratiYahoo! BuzzPRESIDIO, Texas — As crews spent the night working to build a makeshift dam along a railroad line, residents of this normally dusty West Texas border town waited and watched as flood waters from the Rio Grande inched closer to homes.

Terry Bishop has spent the better part of a week watching the river, only to see it crest above a levee near his family's golf course Tuesday. Since then, he's seen the murky waters envelop the 18-hole course and his 300 acres of soy and castor bean crops.

"At first it was slow, just barely coming over," Bishop said Thursday as he drove through the desert to survey another stretch of Rio Grande levee. "We were hoping it would go down ... but that didn't happen."

By midday, county officials said the levee near Bishop's land had failed and emergency plans to build the makeshift dam along the railroad line abutting the levee were implemented.

Presidio County Attorney Rod Ponton said a crew of about 170 low-security inmates from Colorado City and Fort Stockton would start hefting sandbags underneath a pair of railroad trestles overnight Thursday. By Friday morning, Ponton said, several CH-47 helicopters would be in the city to start airlifting larger sandbags to a trestle nearest the weakened levee.

more:http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6010876.html