Editor’s note: After this segment had been produced, heavy rain again caused severe flooding in Texas.
Transcript:
In March 2025, more than a foot of rain fell on parts of South Texas in less than three days.
Belury: “Some communities were flooded and inundated for up to and even longer than a week after the major rain event.”
Lucas Belury, a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona, says some of the hardest-hit areas were low-income, largely Latino communities called colonias.
Belury: “Colonias are highly vulnerable to flooding. Many colonias were built in former farmland that was sort of shaped like a bowl to be irrigated from the Rio Grande River.”
And most colonias lack adequate drainage. So during storms, which are growing more intense as the climate changes, water rushes into these low-lying areas and has nowhere to go.
To help highlight the problem, Belury partnered with community groups to develop a flood mapping tool that combines satellite data with information shared by residents.
It shows exactly which areas in the southern tip of Texas were inundated during each of 13 flood events over the past eight years.
Belury: “And it enables people to zoom in, to zoom out, to type in their address.”
The maps help reveal which areas bear the greatest burden during extreme rain so people can advocate for solutions to help keep their communities safe.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
