ESCOBARES - The 63-year-old woman owns four beds, but has nowhere to sleep.

The beds sit empty in her house in a tiny Starr County hamlet between Roma and Rio Grande City. Termites infest the mattresses. Mold festers on the bed frames. Maria Genoveva Guerra cries as she points to the damage.

Flood water swept Escobares on Aug. 18, rushing into her three-bedroom home. Torrential rains poured for 24 hours, drowning the area with 15 inches of rainwater. Two days later, Gov. Rick Perry declared the county a disaster area.

Guerra's home digs into the ground; her living room sits about three feet lower than the street.

A waist-high line on the wall, furniture and refrigerator shows how high the water got - everything below that is caked in layers of mold.

The flood destroyed all of Guerra's possessions. The mold is now destroying her health.

Doctors tell her to leave, but she says she has nowhere to go. Her son has moved to Michigan to work for the winter. Her two grown daughters live in McAllen with their families.

Moving with her daughters would be impossible, Guerra says. She needs the money from her job serving lunch for the Roma school district. Besides, neither of her daughters have room for her and she's she too old to move.

One daughter has given a love seat to her mother. Guerra sleeps there, the only piece of furniture not caked with mold.

"I had everything I needed," Guerra says in Spanish, seated upon her makeshift bed. "Now I have nothing."

She holds her head and cries.

FAMILY HISTORY

Guerra grew up in Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

In her 20s, she married and had three children - two daughters and a son. The family lived comfortably.

Then he died of appendicitis in the early '90s. Family helped support the widow and her three adolescent children. She carried on for four years, before she came to United States looking for work.

The family moved to Escobares 11 years ago. Guerra found work in a Roma middle school, serving lunch part time. Guerra's son, who was 19, traveled to Michigan during the winter for seasonal jobs. The two incomes supported the family.

Time passed, the daughters married and moved to the McAllen area. The son married as well, fathering two grandchildren for Guerra. He, along with his family, still spends summers living with his mother.

His family lived with Guerra during the flood. As the level rose, the adults tried to bail the water from the home. The girls slept scared in the home's upstairs.

The National Guard eventually rescued them. The son and his family left to Michigan later that month. Guerra stayed.

WHAT SHE NEEDS

A plaque hangs above the living room mold stains.

The Roma school district awarded the plaque to Guerra, commemorating outstanding attendance in 2004 to 2005.

"I like to go to work," Guerra says of her job. "When I come home, I don't know what to do with myself."

The Roma school district pays Guerra about $6,000 a year. She serves lunch during the school year, working about 10 days each month. The wages buy her food and toiletries.

She needs money to remove the hordes of termites infesting her house. The moving, black specks litter every corner and crevice. Neighbors have complained that the insects have spilled onto their property.

She would need thousands of dollars to remove the mold and rebuild her home. State authorities have taken steps to condemn her house and build her a new one, said Yadira R. Barrera, a project manager with Starr County Federal and State Programs.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Guerra assistance, Barrera said. But the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs has pledged money to build a new house.

But it's not final. And if it does happen, Guerra would have nothing to put inside it. She prays some help will come before her son returns with his wife, 8-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

On a recent weekday afternoon, Barrera visited Guerra. She updated her on the state aid. After 30 minutes in the home, Barrera excuses herself outside, saying the mold and humidity had given her a headache. Guerra lives in those conditions.

"By myself I can't do anything," she says, sitting in the same living room she futilely bailed water from. "I need someone's help, but I don't know who that someone is."

------------

Zack Quaintance covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4447.

The United Way is accepting donations - including, but not limited to, clothing, food, furniture, toys and money - for the families of this series. To donate, call (956) 279-9047, (956) 279-9048 or (956) 279-9049 or mail to United Way, P.O. Box 187, McAllen Tx. 78505. You can also make an online donation on the United Way of South Texas website at www.unitedwayofsotx.org. The United Way of South Texas is located at 1200 E. Hackberry, Suite F in McAllen. The Monitor is not accepting donations.