RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TX –Flooding in the Rio Grande Valley (Valley of Tears) has become a big issue, mainly due to the fact that elected City and County Commissioners have used designated monies for repairs of the drainage system for other purposes instead of fixing the drainage problem. They care more about material aspects than human life.
The June 20 flooding clearly exposed how they have manipulated federal and local taxpayer money for their benefit. Whole sections of the city of Weslaco were flooded and residents in those areas lost practically their entire homes.
The same goes for sections of the east side of Precinct 1 Hidalgo County. In the city of Weslaco and Mercedes homes had over 2 feet of water along with backed-up sewage water creating a health hazard for the entire cities. Mercedes Sunrise colonias and Indian Hills are areas that were also affected.
At first, the elected officials blamed the problem on floodgates that were not opened in time and on too much rainfall in a short time. Later, it came out that the drainage system had not been upgraded with larger pipes and / or they were not properly kept clean because of the officials’ maneuvering of tax dollars.
Two lives were lost on this occasion. If there had been a Category 2 or higher hurricane, many more people would have died.
City of Weslaco and Mercedes residents are upset and have begun to organize to replace the current city commissioners and recall the city mayor due to their inability to represent the interest of the community instead care of their self-interest.
Weekly meetings are being held to plan for upcoming city elections and the recall petition. People are upset that their properties are being taxed at a high rate while they sit in flood-prone areas and are not marketable due to the assessed tax value.
New and younger people are stepping forward to politically challenge those corrupt politicians currently in power.
