KNIPPA, Texas — It’ll be a long road when it comes to cleanup after devastating flooding tore through Texas last week.
While some things are getting back up to speed, it is a slow process.
The flooding washed away whole parts of the rocks and support underneath the railroad tracks that run through Knippa, Sabinal and Uvalde—some areas that experienced the worst of the floods.
Crews were working 24/7 to move massive piles of rock back under the tracks so trains can safely move through.
The tracks run pretty much parallel to U.S. Highway 90 and are a big part of the economy and commerce in the area—and Texas as a whole.
That damage is something the mayor of Sabinal, Erik Gomez, says he’s never seen before. But they worked fast to get things up and running.
Gomez says while Highway 90 was closed for a couple of days because of the damage, crews working at the railroad tracks were among the few allowed to pass barriers.
Trains are now back up and running, but crews are still working on spots here and there.
It’s a major job just with the sheer amount of tracks that pass through the affected areas.
“The railroad means a whole bunch to my town because it’s, it runs right through the middle of Sabinal,” Gomez said. “Driving by through night, looking to your left and seeing the rocks gone and knowing that like there’s no train able to pass on that. That was scary. But that tells you the significance of the storm and how much of the impact it had.”
As the work here continues, obviously another big priority is people’s homes, especially a lot of the one-story houses. Once the water got in, the whole home could have been washed away.
Gomez says there are some people still in shelters and some staying with family or in hotels.
Now, it’s a matter of coordinating volunteers and emergency operations, figuring out insurance and even just getting roads back up and running.