KINGSVILLE, Texas — The City of Kingsville now has close to $50 million in grants and interest free loans to try and fix its drainage and sewage problems. Without those dollars, the city manager said hardly any of this work would be able to be done.
Kingsville City Manager Mark McLaughlin tells 3News that money that will pay for all nine areas of Kingsville that the city has targeted as having the worst drainage and sewage problems.
”So, all nine areas next fiscal year after October 1 will be under engineering and construction management to phase these things in to do all nine areas in the town to improve the drainage," McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said the state water development board gave the city a 0% interest loan that will cover repairs to four of the nine problem areas. The rest of the $43 million comes from the Texas General Land Office in the form of grant dollars for the 2016 flood and Hurricane Harvey.
But all of that money apparently still won’t keep the city from flooding during rain events like last weeks.
GALLERY: Viewer submitted photos from the flooding across the Coastal Bend
“When you get 11 to 13 inches of rain in about five hours in the city, no city is ready for that kind of drainage event so if that were to happen again, we probably still have very similar flooding in many of these low lying flood areas," he added.
The repairs may not help the city avoid flooding during huge rain events but the city manager said it should dramatically improve drainage for normal rains.
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