Clint residents continue clean up after heavy storms hit Thursday

Saturday afternoon Virrey Street in Clint was taken over by heavy machinery.

Operators traveled up and down the street picking up and unloading dirt throughout the day but it’s behind the mounds of mud is where you can find neighbors — family and friends working to dig them selves out of five feet of mud.

“For this to happen it just hurts,” Patricia Romero said.

With shovels in hand more than 30 people helped Romero, a resident of Virrey Street.

“Since seven this morning and last night we stayed up till nine,” Romero said.

And it’s not just getting the mud cleaned up that concerns Romero.

“Who knows if it’s contaminated dirt because it’s coming down from the landfill,” Romero said.

Irene Martinez tells ABC-7 her and her husband have been digging out since four in the morning.

Martinez was one of the few residents that had the sludge come into her home.

“The mud came in the living room and bedroom,” Martinez said.

Martinez told ABC-7 she’s worried about mold.

County crews did clear up the road Friday but now the residents feel they’ve been left to fend for themselves.

“The county doesn’t work over the weekend so they just don’t care,” Romero said.

Even though city officials have said the runoff did not come a nearby landfill, residents argue the flow of water and mud came from a retention pond belonging to the city.

“We have footage and pictures of where a retention wall has broken,” Mario Balderrama said.

With days of work ahead of them, residents urge city and county officials to see for themselves the damage that’s been done to their neighborhood.

County Commissioner Vince Perez who overlooks the area said he was in Socorro and Clint checking out retaining walls in the area.

Perez tells ABC-7 he’s going to work with county administration and the public works department to help
clear out some of the dirt.