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Sunday, September 2, 2001
Troops remain in Alice
National Guard observes cleanup
By Neal Falgoust
Caller-Times

   ALICE - Life in flooded Jim Wells County seemed to be getting back to normal Saturday, less than a day after a deployment of National Guard troops and a declaration of emergency by the county commissioners.
   As the waters receded, the city of 20,000 started cleaning up the mess left behind. More than 80 homes across the county were flooded.
   "Several of them are severely affected," said Shelley Parks, a spokeswoman for the Coastal Bend Chapter of the American Red Cross.
   County commissioners ended the state of emergency just after 2 p.m., but a river flood warning remained in effect for the area until at least 9 p.m. The San Fernando Creek crested at about 15 feet overnight and continued to drop all day. At 4 p.m., creek levels were at about 10 feet, a foot or so below flood stage.
   All roads in the county had reopened by Saturday afternoon, except a portion of Farm to Market 1930, which remained closed from Farm to Market 665 to Farm to Market 1352.
   Rain not welcome
   The forecast for Alice today called for partly cloudy skies with a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Temperatures were expected to hover in the mid-90s with a south wind at 10 mph. The chance of rain was expected to drop to about 20 percent tonight and stay there for Labor Day.
   But any more rain would not be a welcome sight for Orlando Rodriguez and his family. They spent most of the day cleaning up the four inches of water that covered their carpet and ruined the furniture in their Soliz Street home. The family built the home about three years ago and didn't carry flood insurance because agents told them the area wasn't prone to flooding.
   "I guess they were wrong," he said.
   'Just call us up'
   Family members used brooms and a wet vacuum to sop up the water. Trash from neighbors' yards littered their yard and baby toys lay strewn across the yard.
   "Whatever wasn't tied down floated," Rodriguez said.
   National Guard troops continued to patrol streets that were covered with water Friday. They remained in the area to provide assistance to residents returning home, said Sgt. Albert P. Olvera.
   "If they need our assistance, they just call us up," he said.
   Joe A. Rodriguez took special measures to protect his home from flooding. A drum filled with sand stood in the middle of his front yard where he and his family had been filling sandbags Friday evening.
   'Kind of scared'
   Although he was able to keep the water from invading through the front stoop, there was some minor damage to the home's siding that went underwater.
   "I didn't want to leave the house," he said. "You think something like that is never going to happen."
   Carlotta Torres and her husband, Aurelio, decided to evacuate. They hitched a ride on a city fire truck to a daughter's home and returned Saturday morning to find that all the water had vanished.
   "I can't believe all this happened and the water disappeared," she said. "We were kind of scared."

   Contact Neal Falgoust at 886-4334 or falgoustn@caller.com

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