Fabens Residents Say Uneven Street Levels Lead To Flooding

By ABC-7 Reporter Marissa Monroy

FABENS — Residents keep struggling to keep flood water out of their homes and now they’re pointing the finger at county officials.

While mother nature certainly deserves some of the blame, somehomeowners say the county is also at fault each time heavy rains submerge their yards and threaten to flood their homes.

Remnants of Friday’s powerful stormare still visible on the houses of oneneighborhood.Aline of mud left behind by the storm marks just how high flood waters reach when it rains. “With the rain so hard yesterday, in that 30 minute time span, we had water up to half of our calves,” saidlocal homeowner Susana Bridgehart.

When the neighborhood homes were built 30 years ago, they sat 16 inches above street level, according to residents.

Over time, however, residents say the county has paved the road and addedtar over the existing road without leveling off the street. This has caused rainwater to flow into their yards, garages and, in some cases, their homes.

Bridgeharttells ABC-7 shehopesthe county responds to their calls of concern. “We do like that we have nice paved roads now, but not at the expenseof losing our homes to water damage,” Bridgehart.”County Officials need to look at this and structure something differently.”

Bridgehart has installed her own drainage system in her yard. However, that has not been enough to keep water out of her yard on most occasions.

ABC-7 tried contacting Commissioner Willia Gandara but he did not respond in time for deadline.