Santa Maria, Texas
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1929 and the latest in 2002. It stands in the Harlingen-San Benito census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78592. The Survey maps it on the Santa Maria quadrangle. 651 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 66 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresSanta Maria fell from 733 to 651 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 733 | |
| 2020 | 651 | -82 (-11%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
9 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1929 USGS Santa Maria quadrangle1:24000
- 1936 USGS Santa Maria quadrangle1:31680, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1956 USGS Port Isabel quadrangle1:250000
- 1956 USGS Santa Maria quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1962 USGS Brownsville quadrangle1:250000
- 1992 USGS Harlingen quadrangle1:100000
- 2002 USGS Santa Maria quadrangle1:24000
Photographs
3 photographs, 1939Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.
Lee, Russell, 1939. Library of Congress
Lee, Russell, 1939. Library of Congress
Lee, Russell, 1939. Library of Congress
Fires near this place
143 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 143 fires within 5 miles of Santa Maria between 1993 and 2019, burning about 1,287 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 50 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Arson/incendiarism | 50 |
| Debris and open burning | 48 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 39 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 2 |
| Smoking | 2 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Natural | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2005 | Debris and open burning | 2.0 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | OTHL CANAL |
| 29 August 2006 | Smoking | 2.0 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | SMOKEY JOE'S |
| 28 August 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | South Texas Refuge Complex | GENESE1 |
| 25 August 2009 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | ADAMS CANAL N/O |
| 25 August 2002 | Smoking | under an acre | South Texas Refuge Complex | ROADSIDE |
| 23 August 2004 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | 2556 |
| 23 August 2004 | Arson/incendiarism | 30 acres | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | LA FERIA |
| 19 August 2019 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge | SANTA MARIA |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
2 since 2025Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Santa Maria in 2 storm reports in 2025: 1 flash flood, 1 flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2025 | Flash Flood | Santa Maria | - | Torrential rains progressed from Hidalgo into Cameron County during the evening of March 27th, with multiple repeating rounds creating rapid onset flash flooding. The multiple rounds of rainfall in western Cameron County added up to more than 10 inches for the period, with some areas likely receiving 9 or more inches in just three hours. Widespread flooding was reported between Santa Rosa, Combes, Palm Valley, and La Feria, with nighttime swift water rescues reported in La Feria and Santa Rosa. The final band of torrential rain (along with strong wind) whipped through just after midnight CST (1 AM CDT) March 28th. ||The IH-2 frontage road was littered with stalled vehicles, and dozens more were removed and placed along the shoulders in each direction. High water continued well after the rains ended, into March 29th. ||It is likely that dozens, if not over 100, structures were impacted to various degrees ranging from affected to major damage, with several likely considered destroyed. Full damage data will be available in later 2025. |
| March 2025 | Flood | Santa Maria | - | The Texas Department of Transportation, along with Cameron County and local city emergency management between La Feria and Rio Hondo, and other law enforcement, and neighborhood groups reported a continuation of 2 to 3 feet of water depth (higher in a few locations) well into March 28th, with only a slow recession on the 29th and 30th before the water drained out for all but a few locations. Flood related impacts continued as follows:||*Much of the IH-2 frontage between La Feria and Harlingen, and the IH-69E frontage from the Willacy County line through San Benito, was under 2 to 3 feet of water.|*The Arroyo Colorado gauge in Harlingen recorded a record high level of 30.44 feet at 7 AM on March 28th. While some of the record water levels were due to slow flows due to a need for dredging of sediment and other debris, locations inside the levee saw water levels greater than those seen from all but Hurricane Beulah, and low water crossings in western Cameron County were under at least 2-3 feet of water depth.|*State and Farm-to-Market roads between Harlingen and Rio Hondo remained closed from at least 2 feet of water depth well into the 28th. |*Numerous homes, vehicles, and more remained under water in Palmview, Combes, Rio Hondo, Harlingen, and Primera. The community of Green Valley was especially hard hit. |*The duration of high water was partly driven by drainage backups and fill-ups in the Flood Control project of canals, ditches, and conveyance through-ways between Hidalgo, Cameron, and Willacy - with northern Cameron County communities bearing the brunt due to their location having the heaviest rainfall totals, which extended into southeast Hidalgo County. ||Water finally drained out except for a few locations by March 30th. Final damage statistics will be included in the Flash Flood entry that includes the Harlingen/Rio Hondo/San Benito area. |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Longoria Townsite Colonia | 0.2 miles | 13 | |
| Colonia Iglesia Antigua | 0.6 miles | 13 | |
| Bluetown | 1.4 miles | 13 | |
| Bluetown Colonia | 1.5 miles | 13 | |
| Arroyo Alto Colonia | 4.2 miles | 13 | |
| Arroyo Alto | 4.2 miles | 13 | |
| El Venadito Colonia | 4.4 miles | 13 | |
| Venadito | 4.6 miles | 13 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Santa Maria | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q978540 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1376017. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.








