TEXAS, USA — Hurricane season made its grand entrance to the Coastal Bend on Monday, June 1, with torrential rains and flooding. Folks who are living in flood-prone areas are asking county leaders if they are prepared to deal with the damage these storms cause since the Coastal Bend is no stranger to hurricanes.
"We had certain areas in the county, particularly between Sinton and Odem, that got up to 10 inches of rain within a matter of a few hours," Emergency Management Coordinator of San Patricio County Sara Williams said.
Williams said while Hurricane Harvey devastated the Coastal Bend back in 2017, it helped city and county leaders get ready for the next storm.
"We've redone some roads, redone ditches, put in some drainage stuff in different areas of the county," Williams said. "We know those areas tend to flood and so we're doing those things so that we can lessen that risk to the public."
San Patricio isn't the only county being proactive. Mark McLaughlin is the City Manager of Kingsville. He said drainage cleaning in parts of Kleberg County have already started.
"Both the city and the power company clean off the high lines for the electric grid, cut back the tree limbs so we can avoid and mitigate the problem of having a tree fall over a power line and cause power outages," McLaughlin said.
Williams and McLaughlin said you shouldn't wait for severe weather to show up at your doorstep to start preparing. If you're evacuating, make sure you take what you need because you might not know what will be left.
Michael Fore is a victim of Harvey. He said he came back to nothing when he evacuated.
"The whole house was gone," Fore said. "I'm a musician. I had all my guitars, everything gone. The house was about 400 feet from where it was supposed to be - where it used to be."