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Experts say recent rainfall will cause dangerous flooding along Nueces River from Tilden to Lake Corpus Christi

Sam Sugarek, Director of Water Quality Programs at Nueces River Authority, said this could be a potentially dangerous situation for towns like George West.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Many residents were happy about the heavy rainfall received this past weekend. Especially in the midst of an ongoing drought. 

But rain can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it's a relief for some communities, but it can be devastating for others. 3NEWS spoke with Nueces River Authority to find out what impact the rainfall experienced recently will have on the environment.

Nueces River Authority says the rainfall we experienced this weekend is good for the drought. They also agree with the Corpus Christi National Weather Service's prediction; that there will be major flooding along the Nueces River from Tilden to Lake Corpus Christi this upcoming weekend.

Sam Sugarek, Director of Water Quality Programs at Nueces River Authority, said this could be a potentially dangerous situation for towns like George West, and Three Rivers.

"Make sure they don't drive through it, because water will be rising over the next week," Sugarek said.

He also warned residents in the area, to take extra precautions.

"Residents that are in that vicinity, and using the roadways, should check the NOAA flood predictions," Sugarek said.

NOAA stands for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For residents in Corpus Christi, he said the flooding on the San Casimiro Creek won't affect those in the city.

"Out in the middle of the Nueces River Basin, we got a lot of rain, a lot of it on the coast," Sugarek said. "And a lot of it did make it into our watershed which will help our water supply."

However, in some cases when the ground is too dry, it absorbs the rain and doesn't allow it to run off into our reservoirs.

"The storm that we got recently helped with that and got the ground kind of saturated, in some places now," Sugarek said.

What's unique about the rain event this past weekend is that rainfall was highly concentrated around San Casimiro Creek in Webb County, just to the west of our viewing area.

"All the other stream gauges are still close to zero, or they were a few weeks ago, with the exception of this one creek, which is very unusual," Sugarek said. "I haven't seen that happen in my 22 years here."

Last weekend's rain came from a tropical disturbance, we're entering the peak of hurricane season. So, be prepared.

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