As reservoirs approach their record lows, thats about to change. For over 90 years in the Valley, one of the richest farming areas of Texas, scientists have solved some of the toughest problems with citrus, fruits, over 60 different vegetables and many agronomic crops, including cotton, corn, sorghum and sugarcane in the states only subtropical region, Villaln said. Hurricane Audrey was a Category 4 storm when it hit near the Texas-Louisiana border on June 27. . Their health ravaged by COVID-19 and their homes flooded by Hurricane Hanna, poor faith communities in the Rio Grande Valley need a hand up . The last powerful storm to hit the area was the 1921 Tampa Bay hurricane. His irrigation district, the Donna Irrigation District, is low on water and hasnt been able to provide the irrigation he needs. By the next cycles end in 2020, Mexico was behind again. Out here in the quiet desert, its easy to forget this meek waterway supports 6 million people in two countries. Hurricane Fiona struck Puerto Rico on Sept. 18, only five years after Hurricane Maria heavily damaged the island archipelago. So Mexico hastily devised a legal trick to pay off its debt, signing over rights to all of its water already stored in the Falcon reservoir. Hinojosa, a veteran Valley water authority with a crisp white button-down tucked into dark blue jeans, has been through this beforein 2002. Submit a Storm Report, CURRENT CONDITIONS Julie Moreno has worked in local television news for more than 20 years. The impact is coming very quickly, said Maria-Elena Giner, commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission, a small federal agency assigned the big business of sharing the Rio Grande and Colorado with Mexico. [25] Falfurrias received more rain from Beulah than it normally records during one year. Produce farmers in South Texas' Rio Grande Valley, dubbed . . Yet unlike the old Junta de los Rios, more than 600 miles upstream in the desert, the delta was never a historical hub for agriculture. The central turning point in developing the Rio Grande Valley hinged on the expanding irrigation system fed by water from two huge upstream dams and favorable water treaties with Mexico in the 1940s, said Dr. Merritt Taylor, a former economist at the AgriLife center in Weslaco and now a research center director in Lane, Okla. Freezes caused many land investors and farmers over the years to abandon their efforts here, which allowed the land to be resold to new investors. The record-smashing 2005 hurricane season was active in July, when five named storms formed. Dan Gearinos habit-forming weekly take on how to understand the energy transformation reshaping our world. If Mexico violates the treaty, he said, its up to the U.S. State Department to ensure it is honored.. Today the farms and canals are back. Over 100 farmers formed a cooperative and built what was then the worlds most modern processing factory, setting the standard for sugarcane industry modernization in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has hit Texas hard, and it's been a particular problem in the Rio Grande Valley. During two consecutive five-year cycles, Mexico had paid less than half the water it owed Texas farmers under the 1944 treatythe first two times it had ever come up short. In the canyons of Big Bend National Park, visitors gawked at the conspicuous absence of the Great River whose arching path gives this rugged region its name. Since then, it hasnt tried again to release water from La Boquilla, which is 28 percent full now 50 percent full after recent heavy rains. Activity Planner Here, the free-flowing river ends for good. [5] The Puerto Morelos lighthouse on the Riviera Maya was undermined by the storm; it was never torn down and the leaning tower remains a tourist attraction in the area. Already, some farmers are facing curtailments. Julie Moreno, Executive Producer/Digital Content. Every day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web's top headlines deliver the full story, for free. . Leaders there are aware of upcoming shortfalls. . Enterprising immigrants poured in. If the drying trend persists, Laredo has even less time to find more water. [3] In light of this, the disturbance was classified as a tropical depression at 12:00UTC that day, with its center situated roughly 175mi (285km) east-northeast of Barbados. [12], Heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides across St. Vincent, blocking numerous roads and causing some damage. Water almost always abounded. US Dept of Commerce This has been farming country for thousands of years, said Enrique Madrid, an Indigenous historian with long gray hair and a mustache, adjusting his glasses as he thumbed through his published English translation of Spanish explorations here. During the storm there were 30,000people in shelters in Nueces and San Patricio Counties, including 6,000 in Corpus Christi. In Chihuahua state, Mexican authorities opened the dam gates at La Boquilla, the largest reservoir in the Conchos basin, 150 miles from the Texas border, sending its waters into the Rio Grande. Its still a cultural pillar for the community and a 1.1 billion dollar sectorfar smaller than the Valleys $7 billion consumer shopping sector. Spanish explorers in the 16th Century dubbed it La Junta de los Riosthe Meeting of the Rivers. Laredo forms part of the largest metro area on the Rio Grande below the Conchos. Here is a list of major hurricanes that have affected Texas in the last 100 years. Today its a different story. Before Spanish times, native people kept their distance from the raging river, whose thrashing course often wiped out any village or farm within miles. Our municipal, our industrial and our domestic users are now going to be prepared to face those sorts of curtailments.. Capsicums (peppers) have been around for 8,000 years, but in just 30 years we made tremendous genetic improvements to them that continue today under the direction of Dr. Kevin Crosby at Texas A&M AgriLife in College Station.. The meteor seen in the skies above McAllen is a reminder of the need for NASA and other organizations to increase our understanding and protection of Earth, to combine scientific and engineering expertise to advance human space exploration, to integrate terrestrial and planetary research for furthering our understanding of the solar system, and to promote successful space missions by mitigating risk, NASA said in a press release. After Hurricane Cindy hit southeast Louisiana, Hurricane Dennis was, at the time, the strongest July Atlantic Basin hurricane on record. Mr. Online Weather School Inside Climate News uses cookies. This led to widespread flooding in the Rio Grande Valley town of Mission . [3] Early reports indicated that more than 1,000people were left homeless across the Barahona Peninsula. Owi, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20192, Region 2: South Atlantic-Gulf (Includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), Region 12: Pacific Islands (American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), Water quality and landscape processes of four watersheds in eastern Puerto Rico. The map to the right shows the populations of each county in 2010, in the majority is Hispanic. FILE PHOTO: A shower of Perseid meteors lights up the sky in 2009 in this NASA time-lapse image. A serious flood risk remains throughout the Coastal Bend and the Rio Grande Valley. Raised in Laredo and as an anchor/reporter at KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley, Jessie is especially familiar with border and immigration issues. Nicaragua's government released data late last year showing that between Sept. 17 and Oct. 7, it issued 20,192 passports. Our geographical location as a border state, as well as the increase in agricultural commerce across our ports of entry, open the door to invasive weeds, insects and vector-transmitted diseases that can infest our agricultural fields, he said. Tony Butler Golf Course is located at 2640 South "M" Street in Harlingen. [6] Padre Island suffered significant devastation, and the island's sensitive ecosystem was altered by the storm. They built multi-story stone cities and impressive public works. Elsa drenched much of Florida, including the Surfside condo collapse recovery efforts that had been ongoing, and spawned an EF1 tornado near Jacksonville. After producing thousands of newscasts, she transitioned to the digital team in 2015. She came to KSAT as a news producer in 2000. Afterwards, its flows are man-made. [23] Gusts of over 100 miles per hour (160km/h) were recorded as far inland as the towns of McAllen, Edinburg, Mission, and Pharr, some 50 miles (80km) from the gulf coast. Sister Norma is now working with local officials and partner organizations to help the people in the Rio Grande Valley. This lake is like a giant bank, holding the accounts of hundreds of downstream users cities and irrigation districts in Texas and Mexico (where all water is owned and managed by the federal government). Two days after the gates were opened, a mob of farmers armed with clubs forced their ways into the dam facility and shut off the valve. Now most supermarket produce comes from far away. Hanna marked the first direct landfall and track of a hurricane across Deep South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley for the first time since Hurricane Dolly in 2008, . As long as we conserve and use judiciously our water supply and protect our soils from erosion and other mismanagement, there will be a place for agriculture here, he said. [3] The powerful storm weakened somewhat as an eyewall replacement cycle began to take shape. Another similar setup lies nearby, and another can be seen in the distance. It is also Mexicos top producer of apples. $9,976.6. A digest of the most pressing climate-related news, released every Tuesday and Friday. Mexicans built dams and planted orchards in Chihuahua, as well. Hurricane Guide Spanish The rain alone was what caused the mass damage throughout the Rio Grande Valley and the upper valley because these hurricanes had a tendency to go up the river. Most of this problem comes down to the Rio Conchos, the largest single water source and, effectively, the Texas rivers headwaters. Water planners, however, are keenly aware of the drought on the Conchos and of the low levels of Amistad, he said. 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