La Feria City Employees Recognized for Response to Crisis

by Tony Vindell/LFN

The unprecedented 12 to 14 inches of rainfall that pounded La Feria was a wake up alarm and it could happen again, but city leaders had no words to express their feelings for the way employees responded to the crisis.

Mayor Pro Tem Rick Hoff and City Manager Jaime Sandoval and the rest of administrative body applauded the staff for the incessant work they performed during the days the rainfall caused widespread flooding.

“I would like to discuss what I saw and I can say all of our employees worked all over to cope with this unprecedented situation,” Hoff said during the last meeting of the city council.

“No engineer or anyone else could have handled so much rain coming down in so few hours.”

He said the public works, water and sewer, volunteer fire departments, the council members and Cameron County Commissioner Gus Ruiz did superb jobs dealing with the situation.

“We had staff working double deck,” Hoff said. “La Feria was up and running up right away while other cities were not.”

Sandoval said he wanted to congratulate all city staff.

“There are not enough words for me to express my feelings for what I saw,” he said. “However, we need to start looking into a solution right now so two years from now we can see a result.”

During the meeting each department made a report which included the number of streets closed, people and animals rescued, vehicles stalled, the water and sewer plants and the lift stations.

And although problems were reported, everything was handled as rapidly as it could possibly be done considering the circumstances.