At least four people died and hundreds of others were rescued in flooding in South Texas and Mexico after more than 20 inches of rain fell near the border on Thursday and Friday.
Three deaths were confirmed in a local disaster declaration by a judge in Hidalgo County, which is about 150 miles southwest of Corpus Christi. The identities of those who died were not immediately known, officials said.
A fourth person drowned in Reynosa, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, which borders Hidalgo County, state officials said.
Parts of Hidalgo County got 14 inches of rain, which caused “significant property damage,” county officials said. The rain in Southern Texas, about a half-year’s worth in two days, had subsided by Friday evening.
Officials in the nearby city of Harlingen, which recorded 21 inches of rain, said on Friday that emergency responders had rescued more than 200 residents and that hundreds more were awaiting rescue.
In Tamaulipas, people were picked up by boats, rescued from roofs and carried through waist-high waters, according to photographs from the state government and the state’s spokeswoman for public security. Large buses were fully submerged in water.
“A lot of rain fell in a few hours,” the spokeswoman, Blanca Zumaya Escobedo, said. She added that the places in Tamaulipas most affected were the cities of Reynosa and Rio Bravo.
The people of Primera, Texas, a city just northwest of Harlingen, are used to preparing for bad weather events, Victor, a resident, explained. Southern Texas has experienced several mass flooding events in recent years..
“Seeing the water was bringing back all of those emotions, anxiety, kind of dread that your home would be underwater again,” said Victor, who declined to provide his last name. “It’s just a feeling that you can’t shake.”
Over the next several days, the rains were expected to move northeast toward Mississippi and Arkansas, according to the National Weather Service.
John Yoon contributed reporting.
