Photographs published by the website Gizmodo appear to show sections of Donald Trump’s partially constructed border wall in southern Arizona in disrepair, wrecked by summer monsoon rains that, according to the site, “literally blew the gates off their hinges.”
Donald Trump’s “virtually impenetrable” border wall with Mexico washed away by flooding
Trump insisted that the “great wall” he planned for the southern border of the United States, to keep out unwanted migrants, would be “impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful.”
Like other pronouncements by the former president, who made a name for himself in construction, the claim did not hold up.
Nor, it seems, did the wall.
Photographs posted by the website Gizmodo appear to show sections of the partially constructed wall in southern Arizona in disrepair, shattered by summer monsoon rains that, according to the site, “literally blew the gates off their hinges.”
At least six gates were washed away at one location near Douglas, according to a quote on the website from José Manuel Pérez Cantú, director of an environmental nonprofit organization, Cuenca de Los Ojos .
Other sections of the wall were also affected by last week’s powerful monsoon, according to the Tucson Sentinel , which said a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official confirmed that damage had occurred.
Experts estimated the storm surge at one section of the wall, at Silver Creek, as high as 7.6 mo 25 feet.
In 2020 , when Trump was still in power, experts warned that floodgates at some locations along the 701-mile, $21 billion wall should be left open during heavy rains and flooding to prevent collapse amid surges of tons of water carrying rocks.
sediment, tree limbs and other debris.
Because of their remote locations, many of the gates would have to be opened manually and left unattended for months, the Washington Post reported.
