West Texas border town of Presidio braces for more flooding
(AP) EL PASO, Texas – West Texas officials are preparing for more flooding in the already saturated border town of Presidio as Hurricane Norbert heads toward the Rio Grande. Officials plan to open an emergency-operations center on Monday. Hurricane Norbert moved across the southern end of Mexico's Baja California peninsula on Saturday, forcing scores of people to flee flooded homes. The Category 2 hurricane, with winds of up to 100 mph, hit land near Puerto Charley on Baja's southwest coast Saturday and was emerging hours later over the Gulf of California, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Norbert was expected to reach mainland Mexico on Saturday night then head toward West Texas. "It's going to be a lot of rain, most of it in the upper Conchos watershed, and the reservoirs are full, so the water has to come out through Presidio," Presidio County Attorney Rod Ponton said. Residents of Presidio have already spent weeks wondering if an earthen levee holding back the swollen Rio Grande would break. Last month, the river topped its banks, filling a nearly quarter-mile-wide channel between levees on each side of the border. Fearing a dam break, Mexican officials released floodwater into channels that feed the Rio Grande near Presidio and the Mexican town of Ojinaga. Several levee breaks along the Rio Conchos and the Rio Grande in Mexico sent water cascading into Ojinaga. At one point, officials in Mexico reported that water levels were as high as 14 feet in parts of that city. A levee break on the U.S. side, east of Presidio, flooded hundreds of acres of farmland and swamped a golf course, Mr. Ponton said. More rain in Mexico could cause another levee break, closer to populated areas of Presidio, he said. Most ViewedMore Good Stuff |
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