[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H6046]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      SEEKING ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE ALEX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Hinojosa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HINOJOSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for two reasons. The first is 
to thank my colleagues here in the House of Representatives, and, 
secondly, to ask for their continued assistance.
  As many of you may know, Hurricane Alex hit south Texas the first 
week of July. It was followed by a subsequent tropical storm that 
dropped more than a foot of rain on my region, which is represented by 
Congressmen Ortiz, Cuellar and myself. Even more rain, 30 inches, fell 
in the mountains of Monterey, Mexico, and over the next 2 weeks, the 
Rio Grande River swelled to record levels, causing flooding along the 
U.S.-Mexico border in Texas.
  The Texas border, from Laredo to Brownsville, is home for over 2 
million people. The international bridges in this region carry the bulk 
of U.S. land trade between the United States and Mexico. The border 
region is primarily protected by a Federal levee and floodway control 
system operated by the International Boundary and Water Commission, 
better known as the IBWC.
  Although it is responsible for over 500 miles of levees just on the 
U.S. side and seven dams, for decades it received approximately $5 
million a year for maintenance of those levees. As a result, a Corps of 
Engineers assessment in 2005 showed that hundreds of miles of the levee 
system were inadequate, too low or to weak to be certified. Several of 
the dams were also of great concern.
  When the report was published, my border colleagues and I knew we had 
to work hard and fast to protect the millions of people we represent. 
We began working with the IBWC, the Corps of Engineers and local 
officials to get the information we needed to make our case to 
Congress. We thought outside the box.
  Hidalgo County, with 750,000 people, one of the fastest growing 
counties in the Nation, worked with IBWC and the Department of Homeland 
Security to develop an ingenious plan to combine the Federal effort to 
fix the levees with the effort to build a new border fence. The 
resulting border-wall concept met DHS's criteria for a fence and 
reinforced the IBWC levees.
  The county believed so much in this project and its urgency that it 
raised bond money and gave $82 million to the IBWC to expedite the 
repairs, even though these structures were totally a Federal 
responsibility. Hidalgo County is one of the poorest in the Nation and 
should not have had to spend their scarce resources on a Federal 
project. They deserve to be reimbursed.
  In Washington, we met with the appropriators from both sides of the 
aisle to make our case. I want to particularly thank Congressman Frank 
Wolf, Congressman David Price, Congressman John Lewis, Congresswoman 
Nita Lowey and Congressman David Obey for understanding the need and 
providing us with $400 million over the last 4 years to make the badly 
needed repairs.
  As a result, the river levees in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties were 
repaired. Dams and floodways near Presidio were repaired, although not 
before we suffered flooding that cost the lives of U.S. and Mexican 
heads of the International Boundary and Water Commission who died in a 
helicopter crash while surveying the damage. All along the U.S.-Mexico 
border, repairs have been made.
  I have a few pictures that demonstrate what this meant during 
Hurricane Alex. Here is a map showing what we would have experienced in 
Hidalgo County if the levees had not been repaired. Everything in blue 
would have been a humongous lake of approximately 150 miles. It would 
have looked like New Orleans did under Hurricane Rita and Hurricane 
Katrina. This blue area of water would have covered most of the major 
population area, endangering hundreds of thousands of people and 
causing billions and billions of dollars worth of damage.
  Despite historic levels of 20 and 30 feet over flood stage, which 
makes the Rio Grande cresting at 59 feet, the cars on the new Anzalduas 
Bridge show the daily traffic coming north from Mexico. As you can see 
the Anzalduas Bridge, it shows that the water all around us is holding 
up very well because of the wall and the strengthening of the levee 
system.
  Look at this. Unfortunately, despite our progress and historic 
funding, IBWC internal floodways north of the river still have not been 
repaired. Levees in this area did not hold and communities have been 
flooded.
  This picture shows a section of the Rio Grande River with no levees 
and the resulting flooding that occurred.
  This final picture is of the Anzalduas Dam. Record river water flows 
forced the IBWC to divert river water into the spillway that leads to 
the floodway. For weeks, water releases from all of the upstream dams 
have been diverted into the floodway because there was too much water 
for the dams to hold back. The record river flows have weakened dams 
like Amistad and Falcon which were of concern to the Corps back in 
2005. Although they held this time, they may not the next time.
  In conclusion, I want to thank Congressmen Ortiz, Cuellar, Reyes, 
Doggett, Rodriguez and the other members of the Border Caucus for their 
help. I appreciate the assistance Chairman Barney Frank and his staffer 
Tom Glassic provided with our flood mapping and insurance issues.
  I close by saying that I want to thank all the Members of this body 
who responded to our pleas, and I urge them to help us finish the job 
and complete the system. It is much less expensive than cleaning up 
after a natural disaster.

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