Today’s post-Dolly dedication goes to Brownsville Mayor Pat M Ahumada Jr.: “Before You Accuse Me (Take a Look at Yourself,) by Bo Diddley.
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Ahumada has always been quick to speak his mind, and many people appreciate him for that, even if they might not always agree with him.
Last week, however, he might have been a little too quick.
With Hurricane Dolly bearing down on the Rio Grande Valley and officials everywhere advising residents to take whatever precautions they could, Ahumada on Wednesday made politics an issue when he questioned the motives of county officials who suggested the day before that people living near river levees consider going elsewhere.
“We believe those will be breached if the path continues,” county emergency management coordinator Johnny Cavazos said. At the time the storm was headed straight toward Brownsville, and could well have traveled right over the levees, actually gaining strength as it fed off the waters of the Rio Grande. That prognosis put people living near the levees directly in the storm’s path, and put the barriers at risk not just from rising water levels, but also from damage by wind erosion and debris. Also, Mexican officials made known the possibility that they might have to open the gates at Cuchillas and other reservoirs if the storm turned south and flooded areas in northern Mexico.
Fortunately the storm veered northward, but it still dumped plenty of water and left people stranded in flooded homes.
Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos wants a compromise with the Department of Homeland Security, which wants to build a fence along the Valley to protect the world’s most powerful nation from the threat of destruction by a bunch of homeless Mexicans. Cascos suggests rather than taking private property away from border residents and destroying natural habitat to build the fence, they simply shore up the levees, which need repair anyway, and make them higher and harder to cross.
Ahumada is promoting the construction of a dam east of Brownsville that would back the river water up for 42 miles, making it 100 yards wide and some 27 feet deep. He said that alone would deter anyone who might want to cross without going through established ports of entry.
It’s worth noting that PUB already has federal approval for a weir dam, which slows the flow but doesn’t completely block the river, and a rock weir already has been built where Ahumada wants a full channel dam, which could totally stop the river flow. The major is trying to win support for the dam among officials in Mexico, which would have to fund half the project and would lose just as much riverbank land as would Cameron County.
Ahumada appears to feel the need to compete against Cascos, as if it were an either-or proposition. It doesn’t need to be.
Certainly, funding is limited and the approval of one project probably would retard the progress of the other. But they needn’t be mutually exclusive. If anything, Ahumada’s proposal to raise the river level by more than 20 feet would also raise the risk of flooding without strong levees. Building a dam likely would make levee improvements even more necessary.
It’s no secret that the International Boundary and Water Commission has found several weak points along the Rio Grande levees, such as around the Amigoland area. Some parts are in such bad shape that the Federal Emergency Management Agency threatened last year to decertify the levee system and declare the area a floodplain. Agencies have since worked on some areas, but officials noted in June that some of the newest work had eroded after moderate rains. Cameron County has about 60 miles of levees, and just over half of them needed repair before the storm hit.
And it doesn’t help Ahumada’s cause that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn already has used Dolly to blast Congress for not providing enough funding to complete work on the levees.
“You don’t have to think back but to Katrina. The federal government has not lived up to its obligation to fund and repair,” Cornyn said Thursday. “We may not be so lucky next time.”
Strong levees are a safety issue. County officials probably weren’t thinking about politics when they issued the warnings that drew Ahumada’s ire; their motivation likely was the same concern for safety that has driven their efforts to get the levees reinforced since day one.
Indeed, talk of levees quickly brings thoughts of the utter destruction of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, and even this year in the Midwest when levee breaches left thousands of acres underwater.
Most people would agree that it’s better to be safe than sorry. With recent disasters engraved in many residents’ memory, questioning county official’s warnings only raised doubts about Ahumada’s own motives.
