In a matter of minutes Monday morning, communities southeast of San Diego were transformed into disaster zones: families fled their homes in chest-deep floods; Vehicles were swept downstream as roads they became rivers; Residents cried out for help from the tops of their rooftops.
A deluge of rain from what city officials call a “thousand-year storm” forced hundreds of rescues, flooded untold numbers of homes and businesses and caused millions of dollars in estimated damage. Flood waters had mostly receded by Tuesday afternoon, revealing the devastating consequences of California's latest climate emergency, and leaving hundreds of people without housing or transportation, and with valuables and personal belongings ruined.
“The damage and impact was absolutely devastating,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a news conference Tuesday. “Entire lives changed in just a few minutes.”
“The amount of water we saw yesterday would have overwhelmed any city drainage system,” he said. “This release of rainwater is unprecedented in the lives of most San Diegans. “None of us alive have seen anything like it.”
More than 4 inches of rain fell in several areas in and around San Diego on Monday, much of it in just a few hours, a historic rain event, according to Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. The airport recorded 2.73 inches, higher than the typical total for the entire month of January.
“That's not only the wettest January day on record, but it's the fourth-wettest day of any calendar day” for San Diego, Adams said. Many areas recorded rainfall rates well above three-quarters of an inch per hour. More than half an inch per hour can easily cause dangerous flash flooding.
“It's a ton,” Adams said. “Virtually anywhere in the country that gets 3 to 4 inches in a three to four hour period is going to see flooding.”
Parts of San Diego were completely flooded.
Neighborhoods in the city's southeast, including Southcrest, Mountain View, Encanto, Logan Heights and San Ysidro, suffered some of the worst damage.
Gloria said city and county leaders are focused on recovery. Both the city and county declared a local emergency. The mayor conservatively estimated the storm caused $6 million in damage, but officials say assessments are far from complete.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday proclaimed a state of emergency for San Diego and Ventura counties, which have been hit by wet winter storms. In late December, torrential downpours in and around Oxnard caused similar damage. During that event, Oxnard recorded rainfall of 3 inches per hour, one of the heaviest downpours ever recorded in the area.
Homeowner María Ramírez walks through her flood-damaged home in San Diego.
(Denis Poroy / Associated Press)
The concern now is that the number of displaced people in San Diego could continue to grow in the coming days. Although no official figure was provided Tuesday, city leaders said they estimated hundreds of people had been forced from their homes, at least temporarily.
“What was widely assumed to be the impact yesterday … was probably an underestimate,” said San Diego City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, whose district includes some of the communities that suffered the worst of the flooding. . He said he visited many of those residents early Tuesday, touring an entire apartment complex that flooded, likely displacing dozens of families.
The American Red Cross is operating two emergency shelters at Lincoln High School and Bostonia Recreation Center. As of Tuesday, the nonprofit said 18 households (more than 50 people) had registered to stay. But with so many people likely still returning to their homes after fleeing, Elo-Rivera said he expected those numbers to increase. City and county officials are asking residents to complete a voluntary survey about flood damage.
“I think it's going to take a little bit longer to realize the extent of the damage,” Elo-Rivera said.
On Monday afternoon, Manuel Deleon was unexpectedly called into the office during his shift driving a tow truck, only to find the office flooded. The roaring water swept away his personal vehicle.
“The water was out of control,” Deleon, 47, said. “My car slipped on the mud and went straight into the water. [a nearby] ditch and was completely submerged.”
Deleon, whose 2007 BMW was one of dozens of cars swept away by the flash floods, said he wasn't sure how he would get to work in the coming days. He tried to clean the soggy, caked-on mud from inside, but it was a lost cause.
“This rain took everyone by surprise,” he said. “It's crazy.”
San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said his crews performed at least 150 rescues on Monday, in addition to 30 animal rescues.
“We literally saw over 100 rescues in the Southcrest neighborhood alone,” Stowell said.
“Fortunately we saw very few injuries and no deaths,” Stowell said, calling that feat “remarkable” given the magnitude of the emergency.
More than 1,000 people remained without power Tuesday after widespread outages on Monday, according to San Diego Gas & Electric's outage map.
Although much of San Diego was under a flood watch throughout Monday, city officials said they were unprepared for the magnitude and speed of what occurred.
“No one anticipated the severity of the storm,” Gloria said. “We had a lot more rain than [what was predicted] in a much shorter period of time.”
He said he planned to meet with the National Weather Service to discuss the disparity between forecasts and what happened, but stressed that his teams were currently focused on recovery.
Adams said Monday's circumstances ended up being a perfect storm for rare, heavy rain in San Diego: extreme atmospheric humidity and a storm track over downtown, which meteorologists warned residents about as soon as possible, he said. .
Shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, the agency issued a flash flood warning for a stretch of coastal communities just south of Orange County, including Oceanside, Carlsbad and Vista. Shortly after, a larger swath of southwestern California was placed under a flash flood warning.
Marlene Sánchez-Barriento rescues objects from behind her house, which was damaged by the flood.
(Denis Poroy / Associated Press)
“We use pretty intense warnings,” Adams said. “We tried to really enhance the message… [that] “This is a really dangerous situation that doesn’t happen that often in San Diego.”
The day before the storm, the National Weather Service's forecast discussion warned that the terrain, already saturated from the weekend's storms, could increase flooding concerns. But forecasters said it was still difficult to predict how much rain would fall and where.
On Monday morning, Adams said the situation developed quickly, with that intense atmospheric humidity (what she called 250% to 350% of normal) and the storm's direct path lining up.
That “really brought torrential rains across the county, but it was especially focused on downtown and surrounding neighborhoods,” Adams said.
City officials said these extreme circumstances are likely to become a new normal requiring more preparation, coordination and investment.
“This is called climate change. It’s real, it’s happening,” Gloria said, “and we experienced it yesterday in San Diego.”
Officials agreed that the city's outdated stormwater drainage system, for which $2 billion in needed work has not been budgeted, didn't help.
Elo-Rivera said she would like to see those much-needed funds allocated equitably, noting that many of the hardest-hit communities were working class, with a majority of Latino and Black residents.
These communities “have been underinvested enough by the city for a long time, stripped of them and ignored,” he said. “Public investment in climate resilience is incredibly important… [especially] prioritizing communities left behind and most likely to be devastated by events like yesterday.”
