Two weeks after hurricane Santa Monica still has no power

SANTA MONICA - Residents were patching up their homes Tuesday now that floodwaters were no longer keeping them away from this low-lying area.

Hurricane Dolly tore the tin roof off Geraldo Peña's two-room home, splitting the old brick walls.

"This is where I used to live," the farmhand said with a wry grin.

After the hurricane, an International Water and Boundary Commission channel flooded the area, said Lillian Garcia, secretary of the Santa Monica Volunteer Fire Department.

The channel unleashed floodwaters that rushed into new homes off FM 1018, Garcia said.

County crews worked for about five days to pump water from the area, County Commissioner Aurelio Guerra said.

"We placed pumps out there, we delivered ice, we delivered food, we delivered water," Guerra said.

Early Tuesday afternoon, Acascio Gaspar worked to clear his front yard of fallen limbs as he gazed at broken trees next to his home.

Floodwaters crested at his doorstep, Gaspar said.

"The water rose up to here but it didn't come in," Gaspar said as he pointed to his doorstep.

But Dolly's wrath forced Peña's family into a rental home up the road.

Early Tuesday afternoon - nearly two weeks after the July 23 storm - hot, stale air filled the rental home where power had not been connected, said Panfila Salazar, Peña's wife.

Coolers of ice stood near a can of mosquito repellent as she cradled her 8-month-old daughter.

"It gets so hot - and the mosquitoes," Salazar said. "I bathe her and have her like this in a diaper because it's so hot."

Slowly, the small farming community was pulling out the flood, Garcia said.

"Now we're back in our homes and the water's subsided," Garcia said. "It's not back to normal, but we're trying to get back to normal."