Why does Brownsville flood?

I don’t live in Brownsville currently but through social networking I’m able to keep in touch with friends and family and of course now a days scrolling on La Pulga Online allows me to keep up with everything that is going on pretty much over there. I was reading that it rained from 4 to 6 inches in a matter of just a few hours causing flash flooding through out the city.  Some notorious parts of town got flooded like The 4 corners, All along Price Road / Los Ebanos, and around Alton Gloor.

So the question arises, why does Brownsville flood?  The Rio Grande Valley is not really a “Valley” but if not a flood plain and unfortunately for Brownsville it happens to be right in the middle of one.  Flooding does not necessarily mean problems with the storm drainage system. Drainage systems, including storm drains, pipes, ditches and creeks, are designed to hold a specific amount of storm water.  It does help that Brownsville has a lot of Resacas but there is a limit to how much water our creeks and resacas can hold. If enough rain falls in a short amount of time, creeks naturally overflow onto the flood plain and obviously IT FLOODS, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Here where I live in Houston, it is the biggest city in Texas and the 4th largest city in the US.  It has millions of dollars to spend on infrastructure and flood control, but yet it still floods? That is because Houston too also happens to be in a flood plain, and the same spots usually flood around Allen Parkway, towards the Galleria Area, and Braeswood, and other areas.  The City of Houston has invested millions of dollars in drainage, pumps, but when it rains cats and dogs it still floods, and there is really not a whole lot that can be done.

So let’s not blame city leaders for acts of God when it floods, blame the original founders of the city for choosing that particular location.