|
Flooded Rio Grande - September 2008
update below, in red
| River Down - Church on Oct. 23 |
|
Above - Photograph of the Contrabando Movie Set - The church
when the water was at about 10 feet lower than the highest crest of 25 foot.
The small building in the foreground has been in very
poor shape for years so it was probably the first to go.
Update Sept. 29 -
Contrabando is reported to be in fair condition, and the adobe buildings are still there!
The small deteriorating fake building closest to the river, the one in the photo showing the flooding, is reported to
be the only building gone. The church had high water, which has now receded, but there may be structural
damage. A real assessment has not been conducted yet, but a ranger did hike to the area and made the observation
on the present condition after the water level has receded. The small construction next to the church even
survived, having had water to its celing. Even the adorable small adobe building close to the
river (which I titled in my painting as "Contrabando 2") is still there! La Casita, the one historical
building, is undamaged by the flooding.
| River on 10/11/08 |
|
| Water level still in the church |
The above Church photo was taken on Oct. 11, with
the water level down, but still at the base of church. Sand has covered the door to the building next to the church,
up to several feet on the front side. On the link below, there are a couple more photos
from Oct. 11:
More photos from Oct. 11, 2008, showing interior damage of one adobe building
"Church on the Rio Grande" was a commissioned painting for a
wedding gift for Mr. and Mrs. D. B. Sweeney. You may rememeber in the movie "Lonesome Dove", the young
boy played by D. B. Sweeney. The two doves in the sky - which are really clouds - were to represent
the two wedding doves. I painted this in 2000, and I just sold the last of the 6.5" x 8" postcards to the Warnock
Center this summer. I had not planned to make another printed edition.
|
| copyrights Bonnie Wunderlich |
"Contrabando 2" (above)
This little adobe building is closest to the river of all the structures
at Contrabando Movie Set. It was one of my favorite buildings at Contrabando, but was not a historic
structure, having been built for a movie. Closest to the Rio Grande, it would have been the
first to be saturated, and most likely, dissolved. Only a miracle would save this structure.
|
| painting copyrights by bonnie wunderlich |
"La Casita"
I painted this painting specifically for the Texas Parks and Wildlife last
summer '07. It was to be duplicated on one of the new exhibit signs, and I've just heard from
Dave Long that this sign had not yet been installed, so it did not wash away like I had feared. La
Casita is the only authentic building on the site - which sits higher than the church so its adobe blocks may not have
been saturated.
You can compare the positioning of the buildings in the painting below, which
is painted in a fish eye view of the whole town. La Casita is the casa in the foreground,
viewed from the back, with the Rio Grande in view below.
Below: "Ghostly Town of the Rio Grande"
Foreground building is La Casita, hopefully on an elevation high enough, and closest
to the State road 170.
|
| painting copyrights by bonnie wunderlich |
Above - Flooding along the Rio Grande in Ojinaga
Above and below - Ojinaga flooding
above - one of the recent State Park exhibit signs about to be washed down river.
The above photo is at Las Virgenes, Mexico, where the water was released from the dam's gates, near
Luis Leon water resevoir, where Mexico received abnormal amounts of rainfall. The two photos below
are also at Las Virgenes, Mexico. The released water flows into the Rio Conchos, which empties
into the Rio Grande at Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Mexico.
Help needed for volunteers for sand bagging
Sept. 21 Email from Rod Ponton, spokesman and attorney for Presidio, asking for volunteers
for sand bagging at the levee:
"... The bad news is that we continue to have concerns over whether the levee will hold. The Mexicans will continue their
release from Luis Leon reservoir at 1000 cms, for 10 days or two weeks, so Presidio will stay at its current level, 950 cms,
or about 24 feet. Although this is 4 or 5 feet below the crest last Tuesday, when the river was at the top of the levee, it
is still a high flood stage, and the levee is getting saturated, and starting to leak in places. We do not know if the levee
can hold against this pressure for that long.
We will start an intensive effort for the next three days to continue to make sandbags and place them on the levee, on
top of plastic sheeting, that will help protect the levee. We are seeking volunteers to make sandbags, drive sandbags in pickup
trucks to the levee, (bring your own pickup) and place the sandbags on plastic at the levee. We are short of people in Presidio.
We are happy to have anyone who can come, we can feed and shelter them, and we very much appreciate the effort of all the
local communities.
There are 220 professionals in Presidio (Border Patrol, Army, Sheriff, etc.), but the lack right now is enough hands
to make and place sandbags. Any help is appreciated.
Rod"
___________
River drops in Presidio, easing fear of flooding
© 2008 The Associated Press
Sept. 23, 2008, 5:51PM
PRESIDIO, Texas — The Rio Grande continued to recede Tuesday in a West Texas border town under threat of massive
flooding for more than two weeks.
Ron Ponton, the Presidio county attorney, said Tuesday that the river has dropped to about 22 feet, from a high of nearly
29 feet a week ago.
"If it doesn't rain in Mexico, we are likely to be OK," Ponton said.
The river eclipsed its banks more than two weeks ago before filling a wide channel between a pair of earthen levees that
help mark the U.S./Mexico border. The flooding is blamed on weeks of torrential summer rains that filled lakes and reservoirs
in Mexico, forcing Mexican officials to release water from the Luis Leon Reservoir into the Rio Conchos, which flows into
the Rio Grande at the western edge of Presidio.
The rapidly rising river prompted officials in Presidio, a town of nearly 5,000 people about 250 southeast of El Paso,
to order mandatory evacuations for three low-lying areas in town.
Since then, city and county officials have scrambled to sure up a two-mile stretch of levee with a heavy plastic liner
anchored by thousands of sandbags. A makeshift dam was also created to stop flood waters from a levee break east of town that
flooded an 18-hole golf course and enveloped hundreds of acres of farmland.
Ponton said more than 40,000 small sandbags have been filled and placed along the levee in the last week. Another 700 larger
sandbags, weighing about 3,000 pounds each, were dropped into place by military helicopters.
Ponton said about 1,000 additional large sandbags have been readied in case another section of levee in the city breaks.
Several levee failures have been reported on the Mexican side of the border, where the town of Ojinaga, just across the
Rio Grande from Presidio, has been inundated with flood waters.
While the river has dropped in Presidio, Texas cities down river are preparing for their share of extra water.
|
