Valley cities still flooded following historic rainfall

SANTA ROSA, Texas (ValleyCentral) — Santa Rosa and surrounding cities continue to struggle with water removal after flooding due to last week's historic rainfall.

Santa Rosa Mayor Jaime Quiroga said three "good-sized neighborhoods" were severely impacted.

Quiroga said the city was making good progress and that only one of the three neighborhoods originally affected still hadn't been able to clear out all the floodwaters.

But, he said that by the end of Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest, he believes all the streets will be clear.

Santa Rosa has been working with the county, who provided them with pumps to move water out of fields and neighborhoods.

Quiroga acknowledged the city does have consistent issues with flooding.

He said those problems arise primarily from the fact that Santa Rosa sits on a largely flat piece of ground, as well as the drainage route water must follow.

Due to the elevation in town, water first has to flow east then south before turning north towards the levees that carry it to the arroyo.

Areas to the north and south of the city continue to experience heavy flooding with roads nearly impassable coming to and from Santa Rosa.

In the region just north of town, between FM 506 and FM 2556, fields and homes are still inundated with floodwaters.

City officials said that location falls under the jurisdiction of the county.

Quiroga said there are plans in the works to make drainage improvements, so residents won't face these flooding issues every time there is significant rainfall.

“We have one project that the city’s working on … two projects actually, that are going to increase the capacity of our drainage system," Quiroga said. "We’ve also got some pumps that are going to be placed out at the levee in the near future."

The projects could start as early as December.