In late March 2025, the city of Mercedes received over20 inches in less than 24 hours as recent drainage improvements were put to thetest.

Local residents have long known what such intenserains can do to a city. In June 2018, over 15 inches of rain fell over the city’sdowntown and adjacent areas and caused widespread flooding. The preceding year– again in June – a similar rain event occurred in Mercedes and also inflictedheavy damages. Firefighters were called upon in helping local residentsevacuate their waterlogged homes.

Alberto Perez was not the Mercedes city manager inthose years. He knew of the flooding and as a city manager in another RioGrande Valley city before coming to Mercedes was well aware that drainage andflooding issues rank among the top concerns of local residents.

“My focus has been on drainage improvements since Igot here,” said Perez, who arrived in Mercedes in 2021. “We can’t grow andbring in new businesses if we’re flooding.”

The March rains of this year were torrential and affectedother area communities, including neighboring Weslaco. In Mercedes, there was,of course, some flooding as there would be anywhere given the volume of rain. Thedifference from the heavy rains of seven years prior is that it took less thanthree days to clear flooded areas versus the weeks needed in 2018 to do thesame.

“It gives you an idea that they’re working,” Perezsaid of the drainage improvements made since 2018. “I’d still like to befurther along. I know there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

‘We’re Not Done’

The flooding episodes of 2017 and 2018 resulted in a$190 million bond being put out for consideration as part of the November 2018elections cycle in Hidalgo County.

Voters approved the bond. It is leading to improvementsin widening and deepening drainage ditches, improving and installing culvertsand constructing detention ponds to better retain and manage storm waters. For Mercedes,the city and immediate areas received about $20 million of the $190 millionbond. Some of those improvements are still under construction, but there wasenough work completed to help move the volume of water that fell in the March2025 rain event.

“It’s about moving the water more quickly so it’s notsitting in the streets,” Perez said.

At the present time, there are three 2018 county bondprojects nearly completion in the Mercedes area. None of them were factors indealing with the March rains of this year since those projects were still underconstruction at the time.

One of them is the Anaquita Drain Section 1 ditchproject that focuses on taking waters from areas along Business 83 anddiverting them south to the Arroyo Colorado. This project is nearly complete. Asecond Anaquita project impacts the area between Dawson Road and Mile 1 East thatis north of Expressway 83. This part of the project is 85 percent complete andincludes channel and culvert improvements in taking floodwaters to the Arroyo. Athird Anaquita project starts at Baseline Road in north Mercedes and will make additionalchannel and culvert improvements.

The construction costs of those three country projectsfor the Mercedes area are nearly $5 million. A fourth drainage project that isongoing is a city effort. Over $3 million is being spent to make improvements inpiping capacity and sewage connections in what the city is calling the CapisalloTerrace project on the eastside of Mercedes. Taken all together, the fourprojects will help Perez and the city government he oversees makeinfrastructure improvements all residents want to see.

“I’ve always said there’s no sense in repairingstreets if we can’t move water,” he said. “We need to fix drainage first orwe’ll be wasting money on streets. We’re moving in the right direction, butwe’re not done.”

RicCavazos