Seventy percent of Hidalgo County residents rely on the North Main Drain to keep rainfall out of their neighborhood.

Among those residents is Danny Ortiz, who said he’s dealt with flooding in the past.

“It really pours in this area right here, there's a lot of rain,” the Hidalgo County Precinct 4 resident said.

Ortiz is the pastor at Templo Emmanuel church, and he lives around the corner from the North Main Drain.

Floodwater can prevent people in the area from getting out of their homes in periods of heavy rain, Ortiz said. 

“We have to wait until the water settles, sometimes we have to wait one or two days before we go out,” Ortiz said.

Ortiz said he hopes that will end once the drain is expanded.

Hidalgo County Precinct 4 Commissioner Ellie Torres was at the Friday groundbreaking for the nearly $4 million North Main Drain Expansion Project that she says was long overdue.

“This is going to be an expansion of 3.5 miles of the north main drain… So the impact and the amount of drain, the water that can flow into it is really going to make an impact by residents,” Torres said. “Our drain system, that was from the 1970s, and hasn't been kept up with."

Construction should be done by January 2024.

Watch the video above for the full story.