Presidio Flood, September 29, 1978

Duration: 0:06:20

Year Published: 1978

Format: 16mm

Sound: silent

Description: This aerial survey of the flooding at Presidio, Texas on September 29, 1978 includes footage of the Rio Grande over its banks, flooded fields and submerged bridges.In late September of 1978, unusually heavy rainfall in the Sierra Grande Mountains caused record flooding both in Presidio, Texas and on the other side of the border, just south of Presidio, in Ojinaha, Mexico. The rainfall caused the Rio Grande River to swell, spilling over the 29 foot levees in Presidio. The Pecos River in Texas and the Rio Conchos in Mexico also flooded due to more than ten inches of rain in four days in the region. Citizens of Presidio, a town of about 1,000 in 1978, piled sandbags on their levees in anticipation of the crest of the flood. The levees were designed to hold back 42,000 cubic feet of water per second, but the flood still overtopped the levees with a crest of 28 to 29 feet, filling about 1,000 acres of farmland with water. In Ojinaga, the Rio Grande also collapsed the 27 foot levee; the Rio Conchos and Rio Grande converged, putting the Rio Grande at more than ten feet above its 14-foot flood stage. The flood left about 10,000 Ojinaja residents homeless, two dead, and five missing.