San Diego residents spent Jan. 23 mopping up and recovering the day after a record-breaking storm slammed the Southern California city with torrential rain and flash flooding.
The fire chief said his department responded to about 100 rescues in the Southcrest neighborhood, among the worst areas hit by flooding Monday.
More than 30 animals were also rescued, and the fire department responded to over 900 incidents, according to Mr. Stowell.
Lifeguards also reported making over 50 rescues along riverbanks and streets.
Other southeast communities most affected by the storm were Mountain View, Encanto, Logan Heights, and San Ysidro, according to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.
According to city estimates, the storm caused between $6 million and $7 million in damage to city infrastructure.
While the National Weather Service office in San Diego had forecast a rainstorm, the city was surprised by the severity, Mr. Gloria said.
The amount of water received in about three hours was “unprecedented” and overwhelmed the city’s storm drainage system, according to city officials.
“The damage and the impact was absolutely devastating,” Mr. Gloria said during the news conference. “In fact, it’s heartbreaking. We saw entire lives changed in just a few minutes.”
The mayor visited flooded neighborhoods Tuesday where flood waters reached the ceilings of homes in some cases, he said.
The city considered the event a “1,000-year storm,” according to Kris McFadden, San Diego’s deputy chief operating officer. Two of the city’s storm pump stations lost power but were expected to be repaired by the end of Tuesday.
The mayor said he planned to talk to the National Weather Service about why the local forecast didn’t predict the amount of rain delivered by the atmospheric river storm system.
“We will need to talk to the [weather service] about why what was forecasted and what happened were two very different things,” Mr. Gloria said.
Videos shared on social media by local residents showed cars piled on top of each other and being swept away and streets flooded across the city.
Several feet of water flooded the Mountain View, Shelltown, and Southcrest neighborhoods, and multiple highways, including Interstate 15.
Resident and business owner Eddie Ochoa told The Associated Press he and his sister went out for breakfast Monday morning and returned to the family’s auto body shop an hour later to find the shop flooded and his sister’s car washed away.
“All that happened within an hour,” Mr. Ochoa told the wire service. “It’s never been that bad, ever. It’s crazy.”
A worker at one flooring business called Techniquex helped rescue drivers stuck in the rising water.
The city also opened a temporary shelter at the Balboa Park Activity Center, a multi-purpose gymnasium, for homeless people who were evacuated from the city’s two homeless shelter locations due to flooding.
