Residents Return To Everyday Life After Severe Flooding

EL PASO, Texas (AP) – Small patches of cleanup efforts were the only signs Wednesday of the rain-fueled devastation that plagued the area a day earlier, as residents returned to their homes on opened roads under sunny skies.

“Right now, it’s actually back to business,” El Paso police spokesman Javier Sambrano said Wednesday. “I guess if you wouldn’t have seen the coverage yesterday, you probably wouldn’t have believed what did happen yesterday.”

The normal routines were in stark contrast to the scene Tuesday, when heavy rains sparked fast-moving floods through streets and homes. Authorities said at least 60 people were rescued Tuesday, some standing on the tops of roofs and their cars. Near the base of the Franklin Mountains, where the water level reached waist-high, neighbors worked to dig a long trench through muddied front yards in an attempt to keep the floodwaters moving.

Sambrano said most people were able to return to their homes without incident Wednesday, and the environment was back to normal despite a small chance of rain. The National Weather Service said the likelihood of further heavy rain had diminished.

But that did not discount danger, because any significant rainfall could cause more flooding in a normally parched region saturated by three consecutive days of heavy showers. The official count is 7 inches of rain for the year, almost all of it in the last few weeks, but some parts of El Paso, particularly the west side, have been inundated by almost of a foot in the last five days, officials said.

Area residents and business owners began Wednesday trying to clear standing water and thick mud covering streets and the first floors of businesses and homes. Volunteers eagerly called to help city and county employees, but most of the damage was confined to businesses in about a quarter-mile area in the western part of the city, Sambrano said.

“I know there’s some homes – it’s sporadic – where they did have some water that made entry … Some families are cleaning it up, but it was not a very major situation,” Sambrano said of cleanup efforts.

Staff Sgt. John Colleng of the National Guard said soldiers were deployed Wednesday morning to neighboring cities Socorro and Vinton to help residents get back into their homes, make sandbags and help with “whatever is necessary.” State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, said the Guard troops were part of Operation Jumpstart, President Bush’s immigration-related plan to secure the border.

The massive storm all but shut down El Paso on Tuesday and caused widespread flooding, saturated mountainsides and collapsed rock walls. The normally placid Rio Grande was moving at twice its normal speed, although it receded Tuesday night, officials said. The state declared El Paso a disaster area.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-08-02-06 1908EDT