As Tropical Storm Nicholas continued to churn in the Gulf of Mexico Monday morning, residents across Cameron County were busy getting sandbags to protect their homes from potential flooding.

Shortly after 9:45 a.m. Monday, Brownsville residents continued to make their way to the Brownsville Event Center on Paredes Line Road to fill up their bags with sand.

City officials announced Sunday evening the sand and empty bags would be available at the location Monday morning and that residents needed to bag the sand themselves.

Carlos Juarez, an insurance agent who works for Rafael Larrazolo Allstate Insurance Co., was at the site getting sandbags for the offices operated by Larrazolo. He has an office on Parades Line Road and Lorenaly Drive.

“We have two locations that tend to flood from time to time and so we are just taking precautions,” Juarez said.

As he was bagging the sand, two Brownsville police officers J. Huerta and E. Rodriguez assisted him. Rodriguez held the bag open for the sand to be poured in while Huerta tied the sandbags and placed them in the back of Juarez’s vehicle.

Huerta said the officers had recently arrived at the location and rather then just stand around and watch, they wanted to help out their community.

Because Juarez is the only male working in the offices he opted to get the bags for both locations.

“Actually I was surprised it was open because according to the internet it said they weren’t going to be here until the 19 th,” Juarez said. ” But the girl said no, they are there now; one of them drove by. So I came out here on a whim and luckily they were here.”

“The police were excellent they are the ones that did most of the work,” he said. “I can’t complain.”

[email protected]

RELATED READING

Flash flood watch in effect for parts of the Rio Grande Valley