While most of the San Diego-Tijuana and Yuma regions hunkered down to wait out last weekend's heavy rainfall and fierce winds, key teams of #USIBWC employees sprang into action and headed directly into the storm while others reviewed all available forecasts and data to predict where and when danger might lie. USIBWC, tasked with the vital job of protecting the welfare of Americans along the US-Mexico border, started having planning meetings with local as well as Mexican officials’ days in advance of Tropical Storm Rachel’s landfall. Before the first rain drops fell, USIBWC operations and maintenance crews were inspecting the levees, canyon collectors, and the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, while senior leadership coordinated with their Mexican counterparts to ensure they were doing the same with their dams. During the storm's worst fury, USIBWC staff drove up and down the border to make sure all this infrastructure was holding, ready to respond in an instant if there were any problems. Back at USIBWC Headquarters in El Paso Texas, the Water Accounting Division pored over weather reports and Tijuana River gage data, hydrologists checked gage data and monitored calls and emails. Staff was also deployed to attain measurements. Calls and emails went back and forth to Mexico, everyone seeking the answer to the critical question: How much more water is on the way? The Yuma Field Office, while deploying staff to help take measurements in the Tijuana River and assist where needed, also was busy at home. The area operations manager, in close contact with Mexican sanitation officials, immediately alerted US stakeholders upon learning rain-soaked Mexicali had started discharging a mix of sewage and stormwater into the New River. By Monday, USIBWC personnel could breathe a sigh of relief, but they didn't let their guard down. Now is the time to thoroughly inspect every inch of infrastructure to get ready for the next storm, and to take stock of lessons learned. This storm put our newly rehabilitated Junction Box (JB-1) to test. It protected our plant with no incidents. Also, the storm procedures and notification protocols worked out in advance with our Mexico counterparts were successful. The recent work completed at the canyon collectors had protected the pump stations. Also, the Mexico sediment basin at Matador Canyon protected Smuggler’s Gulch Canyon, prevented heavy sediment, rocks, and boulders, and minimized trash. Rachel challenged USIBWC, but that's par for the course for the engineers, hydrologists, scientists, and other professionals who take seriously their responsibility to protect Americans from exposure to Mexican sewage. @USIBWCCMcIntosh thanks the employees who worked around the clock to keep Americans safe and appreciates the cooperation of local agencies and Mexico during the storm.