Responding to a flood emergency, three important U.S.-Mexico border officials were killed in a plane crash in northern Mexico this week. Carlos Marin, Arturo Herrera and Jake Brisbin Jr. left El Paso International Airport Sept. 15 to assess flood damage and help coordinate emergency relief efforts in the Presidio-Ojinaga area about 250 miles southeast of El Paso-Ciudad Juarez.

The chartered aircraft carrying the men never arrived to its destination, prompting a search which located the small plane's wreckage two days later. Pilot Matt Juneau and his passengers were then declared dead.

Marin and Herrera were the U.S. and Mexico commissioners of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC), a binational organization charged with overseeing US-Mexico water treaties and boundary issues. The IBWC is also involved in flood control, sanitation and other projects.

A 29-year veteran of the IBWC, Marin was appointed by President Bush to the head the agency in December 2006. Serving since 1989, Herrera was the longtime chief of the IBWC's Mexican section based in Ciudad Juarez. Brisbin was the executive director of the Rio Grande Council of Governments, an association of local governments in Far West Texas and Dona Ana County.

The US section of the IBWC is under the authority of the U.S. Department of State, which issued a somber statement after the ill-fated aircraft was discovered 23 miles northwest of Presidio and 13 miles into Mexico.

Roberta S. Jacobson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the State Department, praised Marin's leadership. The official's "expertise and gentle good humor," will be greatly missed, Jacobson said.

Funeral services for Marin have been scheduled for Sunday morning, (Sept. 21) at the Crestview Funeral Home in El Paso.

In a phone interview with Frontera NorteSur, IBWC spokeswoman Sally Spener said that her agency expected an acting US commissioner to be named "very soon." Spener, nonetheless, characterized veteran IBWC chiefs Marin and Herrera as "irreplaceable."

A former mayor of Marfa, Texas, Brisbin was described by several public officials as an effective advocate for rural and small communities in the Texas and New Mexico border region.

"He understood our problems because he came from a small community," said Art Franco, mayor of Anthony, Texas.

As the border community mourned the loss of Marin and his colleagues, floodwaters from a swollen Rio Conchos watershed ravaged Ojinaga, Chihuahua, and threatened its sister town of Presidio, Texas, across the Rio Grande. Rob Ponton, Presidio County Attorney and spokesman for the emergency response operation, told Frontera NorteSur that water levels had reached 28 feet -- three feet higher than those registered during the record flood of 1978.

In Mexico, six dams help control the Rio Conchos as it flows into the Rio Grande. The proximity of Presidio and Ojinaga to the two rivers' junction puts the two towns at risk in the event of flood conditions. Successful maintenance and management of Mexican flood control structures is of vital importance for both Mexico and the US, Ponton stressed.

By mid-September, hundreds of families were evacuated from Ojinaga, a town of approximately 25,000 people, as overflow from the Rio Conchos submerged four neighborhoods in water and destroyed up to 350 houses. Two government-run health clinics were likewise flooded. Traffic on a Mexican highway was halted, and the international bridge connecting Presidio with Ojinaga temporarily closed. Despite strenuous efforts, attempts to containthe Rio Conchos in Mexico fell short.

"Time got the best of us and the work couldn't be carried out as planned," said Ricardo Espinoza, a Chihuahua state legislator for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). "The (National Water Commission) and equipment operators judged it necessary to leave the work areas for their own safety."

Espinoza later said government agencies and civil society organizations would step up material relief collections and financial assistance for an estimated 1,500 flood victims.

Damages calculated in millions of dollars were reported in Ojinaga, but no deaths were immediately reported in the town. Snakes, spiders and turtles were all spotted haplessly floating in the floodwaters. Swamped with water, Ojinaga's wastewater treatment plant sent sewage spilling into the Rio Grande, according to the IBWC.

On the U.S. side of the border, flooding was initially less severe but still affected farmland in and near Presidio. On Tuesday, Sept. 16, Presidio Mayor Lorenzo Hernandez ordered the mandatory evacuation of about 500 people from parts of the flood-threatened zone. According to Ponton, 100 people were temporarily sheltered at the Presidio Elementary School. The Red Cross, Salvation Army and a host of government agencies were all cooperating in assisting the victims, he said.

On Sept. 18, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a disaster declaration for Presidio County and sent a letter to President Bush requesting a presidential disaster declaration that would free up federal funds.

The IBWC reported that various government agencies were involved in an effort to sandbag Presidio and save the town of about 6,000 people from greater flooding.

Spener said that dozens of IBWC personnel were drawn from agency offices in Texas and New Mexico to pitch in with the Presidio operation. Spener ventured that work crews would be on the scene for some time to come. "We're not out of the woods by yet by any stretch of the imagination," she added.

Presidio County's Rob Ponton concurred with Spener that serious work lay ahead for emergency responders. Although water flows were stabilizing by Sept. 19, Ponton said that a rain-soaked Rio Conchos watershed was already backed up with three weeks' worth of excessive water.

Emergency crews, he emphasized, were laboring at a "very intense rate" to prevent a levee break in Presidio. "We're keeping our fingers crossed it won't happen," Ponton said.

The disaster that struck Ojinaga and threatened Presidio was but the latest emergency to severely disrupt the states of Texas and Chihuahua during the 2008 rainy season. While Texans pick up the pieces of Hurricane Ike, the effects of summer floods linger on throughout Chihuahua. In recent weeks, storms forced thousands of people from their homes in Parral, Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez. The floods served as another rude reminder that living in an arid region offers no surefire protection against extreme wet weather.

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Additional sources:
-- International Boundary and Water Commission, September 17 and 18, 2008. Press releases.
-- Office of the Governor (Texas), September 18, 2008. Press release.
-- El Paso Times, September 17 and 18, 2008. Articles by Diana Washington Valdez, Adriana Chavez, Ramon Renteria, and the Associated Press.
-- El Diario de Juarez, September 17, 2008.
-- Articles by Silvia Macias Medina and editorial staff.
-- Norte, September 17, 2008. Article by Angel Zubia Garcia.
-- El Universal, September 15, 2008. Article by Manuel Ponce and Francisco Arroyo.
-- Lapolaka.com, September 5 and 17, 2008.