No FEMA Assistance For Clint Residents

CLINT, TX- Just days before parts of west El Paso were swept away in torrential downpours, residents in the community of Mankato in far east El Paso were already dealing with mud in their homes.

Homeowners battled flooding, trash, medical waste, and even syringes that washed up ontheir property when a retention pond at the Clint Landfill, owned by the city of El Paso, breached.

Nearly three weeks later, Mankato still looks like a disaster, and any threat of new rain terrifies residents.

FEMA announced good news for the county, Federal Assistance will be available, but there’s a catch.

SInce the storm that caused this muddy mess happened just 4 days earlier on July 28th, as of right now, the Clint area won’t see a penny.

ABC-7 spoke with Deby Stowell, a homeowner who wa outraged to learn this section of east El Paso County will not be included even though Storm 2006 hitthat areafirst.

She says, “For FEMA to say the day it happened they need to go back and look at your newscasts, look at what happened, look at the weather reports, and they’ll see that the flooding didn’t start on the 31st.”

El Paso spokeswoman, Julie Lozano tells me the city is working with the County Judge’s office which plans to ask FEMA to move back the incident date to July 28th to make sure this area gets some federal assistance.

She says it is a big step to make sure the residents of Clint get the help they need.