EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Heavy rains, thunderstorms and flooding caused more than a dozen homes to be evacuated Saturday evening, Oct. 24 in Northwest El Paso in the Enchanted Hills area around Dawnlight.
Sunday, the neighbors and clean-up crews were out and about helping with the aftermath of Saturday’s storm.
16 homes in Northwest EP evacuated in heavy rain
The spirit of this Northwest neighborhood was fully on display with neighbors helping each other clean and bringing water and food.
City crews and the Red Cross were also there to help people in need.
Ajay Shrivastav is a homeowner in Enchanted Hills.
His home was one of 16 that had to be evacuated because of severe flooding from Saturday’s storm.
“You see this water mark right here. I think it’s approximately 4 feet,” he said, showing where water had gone into his home.
Shrivastav and his family have called this home for the past 2 1/2 years.
They were devastated Sunday, with the flood leaving them displaced.
“We were thinking, instead of going to a hotel, maybe going to an apartment. I don’t know how long this is going to take,” Shrivastav said. “The apartment may be a six-month, 12-month lease, we were thinking about it last night.”
Jaylene Placencia, another resident of the Enchanted Hills area, said seeing the entire neighborhood under water, “there were just no words to describe how ugly it felt.”
Placencia said this is the second time this year that the neighborhood has been hit with flooding.
“Happened back in August,” she said. “The storm wasn’t as bad. You wouldn’t think it would flood and basically all the runoff from the water that should have gone into a reservoir down the way ended up in all three of our backyards.
“It was at that time my backyard took the biggest hit,” she added.
Placencia, recalling the August flood, reached out to her homeowners association, anyone she thought could help her.
She said she was told the HOA was in charge of cleaning the reservoir in the neighborhood.
“From there, it was kind of like passing the hot potato,” she said.
Residents have questioned who is responsible for the reservoir and cleaning debris inside the reservoir.
Some even questioned whether it is the responsibility of El Paso Water.
We reached out to El Paso Water and they said they are looking into it.
El Paso Water reiterated what they said on Saturday night that the retention pond on Dawnlight did not overflow during Saturday’s flooding. Instead they said it was caused by runoff from the Franklin Mountains foothills.
The City said that the Red Cross and Sun Metro were called out to assist affected families on Saturday evening.
City officials said that everyone affected, except for Shrivastav, have been able to return to their homes. His home is uninhabitable at this point.
Shrivastav added that his insurance is not going to cover the damage to his home from flooding.
Neighbors said they are working to fix whatever went wrong so it doesn’t happen again.
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