Reservoirs along the Texas-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges and evacuate tens of thousands from homes as a new storm headed toward the region.
The dramatic rise of the Rio Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of one major border crossing between downtown Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and another crossing known as the Colombia Bridge, about 20 miles upriver.
Officials evacuated the flood-threatened Vega Verde subdivision in Del Rio, Texas, some 110 miles upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila have already damaged some 10,000 homes – many swamped in waist-deep water.
“That means there are 40,000 people who don’t have any place to sleep,” Gov. Humberto Moreira told the Televisa network.
To the southeast, Mexican officials evacuated nearly 18,000 people from houses in Ciudad Anahuac for fear that water would overflow the Venustiano Carranza dam and threaten lives. Mexico’s National Water Commission said the dam currently had the largest emergency water release in the country.
Be the first to comment on "Thousands evacuated in Texas and Mexico as storm approaches"