March Flood — One Year Later: Weslaco invests in drainage improvements after March 2025 flood stranded drivers
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Estrella Briones was driving to Weslaco from Brownsville on March 27, 2025, when she ran into rising floodwaters.
"The water was there above her, and we were walking, and it was bad," Briones said.
Briones says she's no stranger to floods in the Rio Grande Valley, having gone through them before in previous years.
Because of those storms, she bought a car higher off the ground.
But that wasn't enough for the March 2025 flood that brought over 20 inches of rain throughout the Valley.
"My sister-in-law said 'you can come to my house,' and she lives in the Republic, and we didn't make it," Briones said.
Roads quickly became impassable.
"The water went not completely in but part of it, but we know how the waves and people passing by. It was difficult to get to the house, and we didn't," Briones said.
Briones and her family parked at a Whataburger and spent the night stranded in the car surrounded by other drivers in the same situation.
A year later, she's still dealing with the damage.
"Well actually in the front, I put [zip] ties because when the water hit, it picked it up," Briones said. "Way in the bottom, the plastic went up so it was like hanging."
She's stuck with small fixes.
"I said, why am I gonna put my car through something small when it's still running? I mean, some of the water got in," Briones said.
City leaders say they've taken lessons from that day seriously.
Weslaco Mayor Adrian Gonzalez calls the March floods a fast-moving event that overwhelmed frontage roads and neighborhoods.
He says the city has made progress in preventing flooding after storms in 2018.
"We saw neighborhoods that were flooded in 2018 that weren't flooded in March so there's been a lot of progress," Gonzalez said.
Since then, the city has continued investing in drainage improvements including projects like the Pablo Peña drainage system.
"Our downtown Weslaco that we're continuing to improve, and that's what Pablo Peña is going to do there. There are over 867 homes that will benefit from this Pablo Peña RDF," Gonzalez said.
There are also three federal grant applications pending with the goal of targeting flood-prone areas across the city.
Gonzalez says one area of focus is Paisano Street.
"That was an area that was affected this March," Gonzalez said.
Crews are already widening ditches and increasing how much water can flow while working with the county and TxDOT to address flooding along frontage roads.
"We're doing with what we have when it comes to money, so we're relying a lot on grants, but we continue to do what we can," Gonzalez said.
For Briones, those efforts matter, but she says the reality is storms like what happened last March are unpredictable.
"You're never prepared. Even if you say you're prepared, you're not prepared because things get out of hand and nature comes, and what can we do," Briones said.
Watch the video above for the full story.
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