EL PASO, Texas — Families in 16 Northwest El Paso homes spent Saturday night away from home after storm runoff pushed a reservoir over its banks, one of several emergencies that led the city to open its Emergency Operations Center as thunderstorms rolled across the Borderland for a second straight evening.
The flooding hit near Dawnlight Lane in the Enchanted Hills neighborhood, which sits north of Transmountain Road on the slope above Interstate 10. City officials said every evacuated household had somewhere to stay. The American Red Cross and Sun Metro helped move and support the families, and El Paso Water sent vacuum trucks to pull standing water out of the area.
On the West Side, crews answered a call about a vehicle caught in floodwater on South Desert Boulevard. The water later went down, the vehicle was moved out of harm’s way and no one was hurt, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said. The office raised the operations center to Level 3, the increased readiness stage.
The weather also cut short the Día de los Muertos festival downtown. A severe thunderstorm watch from the National Weather Service covered El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties until 9 p.m. Saturday. The storms came one day after heavy rain and hail coated parts of the city white on Friday evening and pushed back several high school football games.
Swift-water teams stayed staged across El Paso overnight, and the city said more storms were possible even as the immediate threat eased. Officials asked drivers to slow down on wet roads and never to drive into standing or moving water.
Filed under: El Paso TX Weather News
