EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Residents at the Campo Del Sol master planned community in Northeast El Paso reported significant street flooding at least twice over the past months due to heavy rainfall. Residents are urging developers to resolve the issue.
“It kind of looked like a little mini creek river coming down here, especially down that street. I think that’s probably where the lower end is, and that’s usually where it gets a little bit deeper. Luckily, this last rainfall, it didn’t get too high. I think the first issue was our trash cans blew over the first time, so that really blocked the drains,” said Javoni Garrett, a resident of the housing community.
Garrett said that her street saw significant flooding on June 25 and on July 20, which she said was much worse than the first time.
KTSM spoke to several neighbors who wanted to remain anonymous. They shared that during the flood in June, the water level rose just below knee level; they saw a vehicle get stuck in the water and break down; many of their front lawns and backyards were damaged and flooded; some even shared that their homes were flooded and had to replace their carpets.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking because we’ve been here since November, and we’re actually first-time homebuyers in this area. So it makes us a little bit nervous because you buy a brand new home and you don’t anticipate dealing with certain things,” Garrett said.
Garrett and several of her neighbors, however, said that the homeowner’s association for the housing community has shown efforts to clean the muddied streets and to address the flooding issues.
“We love the neighborhood. We love the amenities, and all of our neighbors are wonderful. We’re just really hoping that the developers and the builders step up and remedy the issues so that way we can continue living here and enjoying it for future years to come” Garrett said.
A renter from another street of the housing community, on the other hand, was more frustrated with what she said are ongoing issues at the property.
“The back of my home has gotten flooded. It hasn’t gotten into my home, but it’s definitely not normal. The way these houses were built, I feel like it was not properly built,” said Crystal Estrada.
Estrada said that her lease began last November and that she has experienced many issues beyond just the flooding. She said that her air conditioning unit has not worked properly, she’s had plumbing issues, excess sand enters her home, and that the first floor of her home has sinkholes.
“I feel stuck because I have a lease, but as soon as it’s up, I’m ready to go,” Estrada said. “It would be nice for higher-ups, the owner, CEO or whoever, to take accountability for this. Because if we’re good enough to pay rent here and move here, then they should be great enough as well to handle these issues,” Estrada said.
Ryan Burkhardt, president for Franklin Mountain Communities and one of Campo Del Sol’s private developers, shared the following statement with KTSM.
“Another torrential rainstorm occurred overnight on Sunday, July 20th, with the heaviest of the rain falling over North El Paso. Fortunately, there was no incident of flooding at Campo Del Sol, and no damage was reported. We did experience some mud in our streets and cleanup commenced Monday morning. As it has been since we opened this master-planned community in October of last year, our continued focus is making sure Campo Del Sol residents are safe and secure, and that the entire community is maintained properly.
“After the significant rain events in late June, we conducted a major cleanup effort of the property. Most of that work has been completed, and one of the specific projects we are currently working on is the removal of silt from the ponds. Using large pumps, which were already on the property on Sunday, we are lowering the water level of the ponds. This enables a quicker drying process, enables our desilting equipment faster access to the ponds, and allows more rainwater to percolate in those ponds during large storms. Fortunately, a desilting operation was scheduled to happen this week, and because the pumps were already onsite, they were turned on Sunday. On Monday, they operated at full capacity. What this process achieves is a drain of the northern pond into the pond south of that, and then on to the southernmost pond, which will drain the water into the open desert area.
This work is part of our normal property maintenance, and we will continue to offer our ongoing assistance to residents of Campo del Sol as we navigate these extraordinary rain events in North El Paso.”
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