Heavy flooding on the Rio Grande has torn roughly 120 large anti-crossing buoys — each weighing close to a ton — loose from their moorings near Eagle Pass, Texas, sending them drifting downriver toward the border community of Laredo, according to reporting this week.
The buoy system was installed as part of Texas’s border barrier program to deter river crossings. Local and state crews are now working to track and recover the loose barriers before they reach populated stretches of the river or interfere with river traffic and wildlife.
Neither Texas officials nor the Army Corps of Engineers have released a full damage or recovery timeline as of this week.