Key Takeaways
The subject, stated early
This piece is about Poza Rica in Veracruz, Mexico (North America), and the debate that followed its October Two Thousand Twenty-Five flooding: whether money tied to a river wall could have changed what happened.
A rumor meets public records
A local claim said Remes received fourteen million pesos from an unknown source for a river wall. Public reporting, however, points to municipal spending around that figure linked to works on the Cazones River corridor and describes the wall as unfinished.
One clear flood-night number
A federal briefing reports that the river level reached 117.31 meters at 11:00 p.m. in Veracruz, Mexico (North America) — 7:00 a.m. in the Netherlands (Europe) the next day — and frames that level as above an official alert benchmark.
A wall can reduce harm, not erase risk
A river wall can protect the stretch it covers, but gaps, overtopping, and urban drainage failures can still flood a city.
Story & Details
A morning greeting, then an accusation
In Poza Rica, the story began with a simple good morning and a hard suspicion. The claim was blunt: Remes received fourteen million pesos from someone unknown for the river containment wall, and if that money had gone into a better build, the flood in October Two Thousand Twenty-Five would not have happened.
That belief carries real weight because the flood is already in the past, and the damage was not abstract. Streets filled. Homes took water. The city’s river, the Cazones, became the center of grief and anger.
Why a river wall exists
A river wall usually has two jobs. One is to hold back water during common rises, so it does not spill into nearby neighborhoods. The other is quieter but just as important: stopping the river from eating away the bank and undermining roads, pipes, and homes.
A wall can also become a platform for city life. Public documents from the Poza Rica municipal government describe a tender for works along the wall corridor between two bridges on the Cazones. That matters because it helps explain confusion: people can hear “money for the wall” when some spending is for features placed along the wall line rather than the core flood-defense structure itself.
The fourteen million pesos question
Reputable reporting says Poza Rica paid about fourteen million pesos for a containment-wall project and that the work was left far from complete, described as only about ten percent built. Another report describes the wall as unfinished since Two Thousand Nine and says more than five thousand families remain exposed to repeated flooding risk.
A separate line of reporting says the need to finish the wall had been flagged years earlier. The detail changes the story’s tone. It is no longer only about a storm. It becomes a story about time, planning, and unfinished protection.
The river level on the critical night
One public technical detail anchors the debate in measurement. A federal briefing states that at 11:00 p.m. in Veracruz, Mexico (North America) — 7:00 a.m. in the Netherlands (Europe) the next day — a level of 117.31 meters was recorded at the Puente Cazones One gauge location in Poza Rica.
The same briefing describes that reading as 3.11 meters above the established alert level and notes a rapid rise over two hours. Fast rises shrink the window for warning and make weak points matter more.
Would finishing the missing work have helped?
The most realistic answer is simple: it could have helped in some places, but it could not promise a flood-free city.
If a wall has a gap, water uses the gap. If water rises above the top, it flows over. If the wall holds the river back but drainage fails inside the city, streets can still fill from below. Flood safety is not one door. It is many doors, and water will try them all.
That is why the wall’s design standard matters. To judge whether the wall could have held back the flood-night level, the public still needs the wall’s crest elevation, continuity details, and the design return period used to size it. Without those numbers, the claim that a better build would have prevented the entire flood remains a strong belief, not a proven engineering conclusion.
A brief Dutch mini-lesson for water-level questions
A small Dutch tool can help when reading water news in the Netherlands (Europe) or asking a clear question.
Big-picture meaning: a polite greeting, then a direct question about river height.
Example sentence: Goedemorgen. Hoe hoog stond de rivier?
Word-by-word: Goedemorgen = good morning. Hoe = how. Hoog = high. Stond = stood, past tense for a measured level. De = the. Rivier = river.
Use note: friendly and normal, suitable for everyday speech.
Big-picture meaning: a short, report-like question about the official water level.
Example sentence: Wat was het waterpeil?
Word-by-word: Wat = what. Was = was. Het = the. Waterpeil = water level.
Use note: slightly more formal, common in news style.
Conclusions
As of December Two Thousand Twenty-Five, Poza Rica’s October flood is behind it, but the argument it sparked is still alive: money, responsibility, and the limits of concrete.
The record offers one hard fact: a measured river level of 117.31 meters late on October Nine, Two Thousand Twenty-Five, described as above an alert benchmark. Public reporting also describes an unfinished wall and years of delay.
A careful ending follows from that mix. A continuous, well-built, well-maintained wall can reduce harm along the river edge it protects. But no wall can be judged without its design standard, and no city can rely on a single structure when water can arrive fast and enter from more than one path.
Selected References
[1] National Civil Protection Coordination, Mexico (North America), federal briefing PDF with the 117.31-meter reading and alert comparison: https://cnpcinforma.sspc.gob.mx/doc/PDF/Noviembre_2025/2025.11.03_Presentacio%CC%81n_GS.pdf
[2] Eme-equis, Mexico (North America), report stating a roughly fourteen-million-peso wall project was left at about ten percent completion: https://emeequis.com/investigaciones/el-muro-de-contencion-inconcluso-en-poza-rica-que-costo-14-millones/
[3] El País, Spain (Europe), report on warnings since Two Thousand Nineteen about finishing the wall on the Cazones River: https://elpais.com/mexico/2025-10-18/poza-rica-advirtio-desde-2019-de-la-necesidad-de-acabar-el-muro-de-contencion-contra-el-desbordamiento-del-rio-cazones.html
[4] AVC Noticias, Mexico (North America), report describing the wall as unfinished since Two Thousand Nine and ongoing exposure for thousands of families: https://www.avcnoticias.com.mx/noticias-veracruz/reporteavc/371529/obra-inconclusa-del-muro-del-r-o-cazones-mantiene-en-riesgo-a-miles-de-familias-en-poza-rica.html
[5] Poza Rica municipal government, Mexico (North America), tender annex PDF for works along the river-wall corridor: https://poza-rica.gob.mx/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/anexos-mpr-lpe-30131-001.pdf
[6] Associated Press, United States (North America), YouTube video with footage and reporting from Poza Rica during the floods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vSPD0VsrA
Appendix
Alert level
A warning threshold used by authorities to signal high risk at a river gauge.
Bank erosion
The river slowly or suddenly wears away the edge of land, which can damage roads and buildings.
Containment wall
A barrier along a riverbank meant to limit overflow and stabilize the bank.
Crest elevation
The height of the top of a wall measured against a known reference level.
Drainage backflow
Water pushes backward through drains or sewers and floods streets or homes from below.
Gauge
A fixed measurement point where river level is recorded.
Overtopping
Water flows over the top of a wall when the river rises above the wall’s effective height.
Return period
A design measure describing how rare an event is, used to size flood defenses.
Scour
Fast water removes soil around the base of structures, weakening foundations; in Spanish technical use it is commonly translated as socavación.
Stage
The measured height of the river surface at a gauge site, often tracked through a storm.
My Diary - Leonardo Cardillo 