South Texas officials urge state backing for $221 million Delta water-and-flood project after March storms

Hidalgo County officials told the House Committee on Natural Resources that a late-March storm system overwhelmed local drainage, destroyed homes and closed key corridors, and they urged state help to finish a $221 million Delta Region Water Management Project intended to both reduce downstream flooding and provide an alternate water supply.

"From March 26 to March 28 our community endured a sudden and severe storm system that dropped more than 20 inches of rain across our region," Hidalgo County Commissioner David Fuentes told the committee. "In Hidalgo County the impacts were devastating: 235 homes were destroyed or severely damaged, more than 1,000 structures inundated, hundreds of roads flooded and six lives lost. Property damage in our county alone exceeded $100,000,000."

Fuentes and Raul Sassin, general manager of McDowell County Drainage District No. 1, described damage to transportation corridors and the limits of existing drainage infrastructure. "Our region's most critical transportation corridor, Interstate 2, was shut down in multiple…