By DIANTÉ MARIGNY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
Early last Thursday morning, much of the RGV woke up to the rumble of thunder and heavy rainfall. Devastation struck many Valley cities, as flood waters surrounded people’s homes, businesses, and streets.
On South Padre Island, the main road, Padre Blvd, looked like a flowing river. According to the assistant Public Works Director, Jon Wilson, between the hours of 2 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., the Island was slammed with 9.17 inches of rain. In a meeting with Army Corp Engineers out of Galveston, the Public Works team learned that because of that heavy rain, the Island experienced its 100-year rain event. That means there is only a 1% chance every year of that much rain falling, and it happened.
According to several weather reports, the RGV experienced more rain between March 26-28 than several other major rain events, including tropical cyclones such as Labor Day in 1933, Beullah in 1967, Allen in 1980, and Dolly in 2008.
The reason so much water pooled on the Island streets is because it was just too much rain in such a short amount of time, Wilson said. “The amount of development on South Padre Island tends to affect how fast the rain water accumulates on our streets and to our storm drain systems.”
Because SPI is flat with very little elevation, it took about 2 hours for the flood water to drain into the bay.
“Drainage is measured by the volume of water being moved by gravity,” said Wilson. “If we had high elevations, we could make the storm water runoff much faster.”
Although high tides play a factor in flooding, for this rain event, high tides were not an issue.
Currently, the SPI Public Works Department is working on adding more storm water pipes throughout the island. This includes a 24-inch storm water pipe designed by Public Works Director Alex Sanchez. This new pipe is a part of the reconstruction to West Lantana street, and will provide additional capacity leading from inlets along Padre and Gulf Blvd., leading into the Bay.
Overall, Wilson says he is proud of the drainage efforts thus far on the Island and his team is prepared for all future rain events, including Hurricane Season.
In case of these future rain events, Island residents are encouraged to use Gulf Blvd. to travel until the water recedes.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño posted online, encouraging residents to report property damage to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.
The City of South Padre Island sends this message to the rest of the Valley affected: “Our hearts and prayers go out to all the surrounding cities still affected by last week’s rain event. We hope for a swift recovery and relief for everyone struggling with the flood’s impact.”
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