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Robstown residents still struggling with flood water

Robstown woman says she's been having trouble with water flowing into her home for years.
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KINGSVILLE, Texas — Many are still having flood issues in Robstown after the recent rain earlier this week.

Carmen Elizondo, 84, a resident of Robstown, said flooding has been an issue around her house since 2007, but this time the flood water got into her house. She even has pictures of the water that has flooded around her house that date back to 2007 and pictures from 2006 of her yard that had not yet gotten torn up by the flooding.

Elizondo said she couldn’t even see the street in front of her house because it was flooded so much and she said she was having trouble walking down the street because the water covered her entire sidewalk.

She said she thinks the water from the apartments across the street could be draining to her house.

Now she said she’s having bug issues because of the water and is having to get rid of some of her possessions like couches because the water affected them.

She said her Jehovah's Witness brothers and sisters helped her clean up the water and blames the City of Robstown for not helping her. She said she’s been so stressed out about the issue that she could be losing weight because of it.

“They never came and checked to really see what’s going on. They just took it for granted and I call that abuse,” Elizondo said.

A resident in the Blue Bonnet neighborhood, Delma Garcia, said she hadn’t left her house for days until today because of the flooding.

“It’s pretty bad. There’s boards and clothes and trash everywhere and the flooding and the smell is really bad right now. There’s dead cats back there where I live because they drowned,” Garcia said.

Nueces County Drainage District #2 is helping to get rid of the water in neighborhoods like Garcia’s. They said they were able to secure 2 130 barrel trucks and they made seven trips.

Other water pumps are pumping the water from the neighborhoods into a nearby ditch and they said they’re working with various people to help out residents.

“We’ve worked with the Nueces County. We’ve been in contact with Commissioner Mares and Gonzalez as well as the County judges office and on the other side as you’ll see we’re working with the City of Robstown, the fire department, and the Nueces County water district out here,” Joseph Ramirez, their consultant, said.

Ramirez said they will be building a dam in certain parts of Petronilla to ease the water flow in neighborhoods. He said workers are currently working shifts that total up to 24 hours a day and will be doing so until the water is clear.

The Casa De Dios Church and the Coastal Bend Food Bank are hosting two food distributions to help Robstown residents Friday and Saturday.

The first one is from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday at 904 Industrial St. next to the McDonald's.

The second one is Saturday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Blue Bonnett subdivision in Robstown.