A month after flooding, Hidalgo County still working to help families recover

WESLACO — On the morning of Friday, March 28, Marcela Garza awoke to find over a foot of water in her bedroom.

When she and her husband had gone to bed the night before, her neighborhood in Progreso had already begun to flood, but the water hadn’t reached her home.

An early morning phone call from her neighbor, Rosa Gonzalez, is what woke her up. Water, sewage and debris now flowed in and around her home.

She said that it was something she had never experienced in the decades that she has lived in her home.

A man walks in the water on the Frontage Road after his vehicle stalled in the high water during a downpour on Thursday, March 27, 2025, in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | jmartinez@themonitor.com)

“Not even the hurricanes, I mean, they would come in, but not up to my home,” she recalled. “(The water) was running, it was like a river. If she had not called me in the morning, I wouldn’t even know I was underwater. My bed was already hitting the water.”

Marcela Garza and her disabled husband were forced to leave their home for three days. When they returned, nearly everything was destroyed by the water.

“I’m glad that my son came (to help) because I wasn’t doing everything about myself,” she said. “Since, like I said, my husband is disabled, I had to move the refrigerators, washer, dryer, my stove, to get everything out to clean the floors. It took me about eight mops just to clear the mud and the stank.”

With her house mostly clean, she is now having to deal with mold.

The Hidalgo County Community Service Agency met with community members in Weslaco on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 to help provide disaster relief following the flooding in March. (Francisco E. Jimenez | The Monitor)

“We’re gonna have to tear all that mold out,” she said. “I have a lot of mold, and I need to get rid of all that junk on the bottom. Everything has to go.”

The problems she and her family have faced are similar to many throughout the Rio Grande Valley who were afflicted by the March floods.

Many are still struggling to make ends meet. It is what brought many, such as Marcela Garza and her neighbor Gonzalez, to the First Baptist Church Family Life Center on Wednesday morning. It was there that the Hidalgo County Community Service Agency hosted another of its disaster relief assistance events.

They were there to offer aid to 150 qualifying families. According to Mari Garza, HCCSA operations manager, families who qualify for assistance will receive a numbered bracelet with a date and time for them to meet with the HCCSA and begin filling out applications.

The Hidalgo County Community Service Agency distributed 150 bracelets to qualifying families for disaster relief assistance on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Francisco E. Jimenez | The Monitor)

“A lot of individuals were affected. We’re seeing a lot from the clients that are reporting to us damages from their whole homes,” she said. “They’ve got a lot of water inside, their sheet rock was damaged, their roofing collapsed, things like that.”

She said that many people are also reporting damage to their vehicles, clothing and other personal items, but the HCCSA is only able to offer assistance for damaged homes.

“The services that we provide are for them to purchase emergency kits — kits to clean their homes,” she explained.

By 9:30 that morning, they had already distributed nearly half of their bracelets.

Marcela Garza and her neighbor Gonzalez arrived at the event at around 6:30 that morning. They sat at a table inside the church’s gymnasium waiting for their number on their assigned bracelets to be called.

They were joined by Paul Mendez, of Weslaco, who shared a story that has become all too common among those who are still trying to recover from the flooding.

“It’s already rotted out,” he said about his home. “I was lucky that we live with a little bit of height. My house sits around 10 inches higher than most. But the wood from the bottom of the floor got all wet, and now my tiles are breaking and coming out.”

He said that he had never experienced flooding like what he experienced in March. He said that the thought of more rain causes him to get anxious.

“I just wonder, ‘Is it going to do that again, all over again?’”

Despite the long recovery process, they all seemed in good spirits.

“It makes us feel good that at least someone is helping,” Marcela Garza said.

She acknowledged that the process to get the assistance takes a bit of time, but she said that she was just happy to get any bit of assistance.

“Our funding is very limited, and we wish that we could assist everybody,” Mari Garza said. “There’s not enough funding for everything and for everybody. Our agency is always working and looking out for other grants that we can assist. Of course, if there’s any additional funding, we always apply for any funding. Any help that we can get is always appreciated.”

For more information about assistance or other disaster relief events, visit the Hidalgo County Community Service Agency website at hidalgocsa.org.

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