People living near Angus Avenue off of Mile 8 are slowly trying to clean up their flooded homes after close to 20 inches of rain fell in the area.

"Quickly the water starts to accumulate here and almost instantly it fills up," Mercedes resident Arsenia Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez has lived in the neighborhood for more than 30 years. She says never seen this much water in the area.

Gonzalez says some of that water crept into her home and soaked her belongings.

"I lost a lot of clothes, shoes, blankets and the restroom cabinets," Gonzalez said.

Mercedes city leaders said they put in a request with Hidalgo County on Friday night for tanker trucks. Precinct 1 arrived on Saturday with two tankers to suck out water until the area finally dried up on Monday.

The city also placed pumps near Dawson Street to help move the water out of the canal and down stream toward the Arroyo River.

Channel 5 News asked Mercedes City Manager Alberto Perez why it took a couple of days for the water to recede from the neighborhood.

"Because we are dealing with all of the water coming from these open fields," Perez said.

Perez says just north of the neighborhood, fields collect water that drains into the canal nearby. When it's full, the water overflows into the neighborhood. 

Perez says he plans to schedule a meeting with the Hidalgo County drainage district to come up with a plan to prevent this from happening again.

"Some kind of barrier, whatever the engineers allow us to do, because we still have to allow the water to flow through the canals, but we want to prevent it from going into the neighborhoods," Perez said.

Mercedes Emergency Management Coordinator Javier Campos says the city also plans to continue pumping water for the next week or two.

There are currently 10 pumps positioned throughout the city.

The public is being asked to report any storm damage online to the state.

Watch the video above for the full story.