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City and county officials watching certain areas for high water

Rain is expected to bring brief flooding to low spots and the coast.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — With such a large rain event headed this way, 3NEWS asked how the city and county emergency officials are getting ready.

Because we're expecting moisture instead of one storm, officials feel practicing for events like this should reassure residents that the leaders are ready.

"Some of our main concerns are just flooding on the roads and then the coastal areas," Emergency Services Director Jace Johnson said.

He says there are a few spots emergency responders will be keeping tabs on.

"Oso Creek is a concern to us and then the Calle neighborhood and then the Nueces River," Johnson said. "We're going to be watching all three of those to make sure that as flooding does become an issue, that we're prepared to monitor it and make the necessary decisions to block off roads if necessary."

Dee Hawkins, the emergency management coordinator for Nueces County says if we weren't already hurting for lack of rain, the multi-inch rain predictions might be more concerning.

"With the information that I have I think we're going to have some heavy rains in pockets," Hawkins said. "There might be some puddles that happen but they should rescind fairly quickly in the county areas and the rural areas. But we're not looking at any major flooding, maybe slight to moderate right now is what we're looking at."

County Coastal Parks Director Scott Cross said his crews will remove trash bins from the beach before the rain hits. 

"We'll wait until Thursday hopefully some time the tide will recede, it may end up being Friday morning," Cross said "And then we'll go out and just survey the beach and make sure there's not a bunch of debris. We're not closing the beaches or anything like that, but typically with these storms we find a lot of logs, big logs. We want to remove those so nobody runs into them."

Johnson, who's experience includes flood events in third world countries, says the Coastal Bend has a big advantage.

"Obviously, the effects of the storm all affect us the same way, the difference is communication," he said. "Here we have methods of, whether it's through radio, through news, through social media to really reach out to the public. In some of the other developing nations that's not the case."

Johnson said TxDOT is partnering with the City as usual to have high profile vehicles stationed in key spots for possible high water rescues.

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