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Mayor: El Paso Can't Handle Another Large Flood

El Paso's mayor John Cook, says there's $200 million worth of projects that the city is still working on after the 2006 floods.

One of the top priorities on that list is Glory Road, which Mayor Cook admits is just like all of the other projects on the list -- it's not completed.

In fact the problems with flooding on Glory Road have already happened three times this month. The most recent happened on Wednesday morning, where the rain gathered quickly overnight leaving many drivers who parked their cars stranded, as their cars floated in the middle of the street.

"I go to school at UTEP and I just feel every time it rains it's a really big problem," said Genie Bustos from West El Paso.

It is a big problem that KFOX has reported on two other days this months including May 2, when a large storm sent water gushing into Glory Road and multiple cars parked along the road began to float like boats.

Then, on May 8, the road once again filled up with water, forcing city crews to close the street until the water drained.

While it looks as if the city has not done anything to fix the road to where it won't flood, Mayor Cook said construction has begun on the surrounding street of Oregon, which he said will help the drainage backup on Glory Road.

Glory Road is the first road project on the city's priority list, a list that is several pages long.

Yet, after going through the list with the mayor, KFOX found that in almost 10 months, not one single project has been completed.

"We could have put everything back exactly the way it was and then given the same type of storm we would know it would fail again, so the city didn't want to do that," said Cook.

Instead the mayor said city engineers are trying to figure out how to rebuild the system better than the last one.

"I don't think anyone is really satisfied that we are getting the projects done fast enough, but if you start looking at the complexity of the projects, you realize you couldn't just run in and start pouring new concrete, laying new asphalt," said Cook.

As for the city's priority list, the only project KFOX could find that was almost complete was the demolition project on Mowad street, which is 95 percent done.

The mayor said the rest of the projects have been divided up into three phases and right now the city is focusing all of its efforts on phase one, including the Glory Road project.



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