Combes resident Trevor Kocaoglan recalls the June 2019 floods.

As a first responder at the time, Kocaoglan said the water affected his hometown.

“Unfortunately, there was flooding everywhere,” Kocaoglan said. “I went out there, pulling people out of the water,”

To avoid the potential of Combes residents being under several feet of water again, the Cameron County Drainage District No. 5 has been working on drainage improvements. 

The district bought farmland for ditch expansions, and converted a dugout into a detention pond.

Drainage officials say the culvert was not big enough to drain floodwaters out of Combes in 2019.

Cameron County Drainage District No. 5 Board President Steve Jennings says it’s worth making all these changes for the small community. 

"It's 100 homes," Jennings said. "Every job that we do, we look at how many dollars we're going to spend, how many dollars worth of property is it going to protect."

Installing larger culverts underneath the I-69E would cost $1.2 million.

“This is a major item, and we don't want to take all the funds and all the resources and all the capabilities of the district just to do this one community,” Jennings said.

The drainage district received half a million dollars from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but it's still not enough.

Combes city officials applied for a nearly $900,000 federal grant in 2020, and are still waiting for a response from FEMA.

Once all the money is in place, construction can begin.

Watch the video above for the full story.