san diego yacht club flooding

Emergency declared in San Diego as wettest January day on record brings widespread flooding

SAN DIEGO — Winter storms for relatively dry San Diego are hit-or-miss, but mostly miss, so the wallop of a Pacific front Monday stunned California's second-largest city even as it was expecting rain.

It was the third of three Pacific storms to strike the West Coast since Friday, with the first bypassing the region and the second producing only about one-third of an inch of relatively warm rain. A city that walked it off was then punished by the third storm , which had been forecast to be stronger.

It was the wettest January day on record in San Diego, the National Weather Service said. A high school in the city was being used as a temporary shelter after about 100 homes were in some way affected by the flooding, according to Mayor Todd Gloria, who declared a state of emergency "due to extreme rainfall and flash flooding."

Video posted to social media showed cars being swept away by fast-moving waters, on roads turned into rivers.

Tijuana and other parts of northern Baja California were hit hard. At least eight migrants were rescued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and San Diego Fire Department rescuers when they were endangered by the floodwaters of the Tijuana River Valley on the U.S. side, authorities said.

Residents in the Southcrest neighborhood just southeast of downtown had to be rescued by firefighters as standing water quickly surrounded their apartment complex, according to authorities and coverage from NBC San Diego . No injuries were reported.

Navy Base San Diego, south of downtown, reported flooding in the late morning as a thick cell of precipitation moved over the area and put multiple streets and Interstate 15, which leads to Las Vegas, under enough water that they were effectively shuttered.

Navy officials said personnel on base should shelter in place as they tried to move incoming and outgoing traffic to areas of the base that weren't temporarily united with adjacent San Diego Bay.

Mayor Gloria urged residents and visitors to stay off roads Monday. Schools in adjacent La Mesa and Spring Valley declared classrooms would be closed Tuesday.

"This weather event was predicted, in terms of rain, but the amount of rain in the short amount of time was a bit of a surprise to, I think, everybody," he said at a news conference early Tuesday at Lincoln High School in San Diego, which is being used as a shelter.

Gloria added that he would be asking the state governor, Gavin Newsome, for federal funds.

Sean Mahoney, regional CEO for the American Red Cross Southern California Region, told the same news conference that the shelter would be able to house 375 people, providing hot meals and mental health support. Two homeless centers have been relocated.

The city grappled with flooding in the usual places, including Mission Valley, where multiple roads were impassable, and Ocean Beach, where beachgoers didn’t necessarily have to reach the ocean to go for a swim.

At the north end of San Diego County, State Route 78 was shuttered east of the city of Oceanside after lanes were buried in floodwaters. Eastbound lanes remained closed Monday night, according to the California Transportation Department.

The scene was similar across the region as the storm drew moisture from the Pacific and formed an atmospheric river, what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calls "rivers in the sky," which produced once-in-a-generation effects.

The storm echoed the havoc of El Niño in 1983 or 1998 — classic years for the rainy weather phenomenon that brought widespread flooding, sizable surf and even weeks of snow to Southern California.

Monday's storm spun at the coast counterclockwise and hit northern Baja California, giving San Diego a glancing but still strong blow, NWS meteorologist Brandt Maxwell said.

The long-tail jet stream, a permanent feature that usually aims storms much farther north, and the strong atmospheric river paired up with unstable air composed of warmer atmosphere colliding with colder climes, Maxwell said. Together those elements charged up the day's storm.

The only thing missing, Maxwell noted, was strong wind.

San Diego's rain amounts have been well below normal this season, which started Oct. 1. But this single storm brought the city to slightly above normal for the year, Maxwell said.

There's still essentially half the rainy season ahead, and average annual rainfall is nearly 10 inches. The storm gave San Diego enough rain to put its season-to-date precipitation at just a hair under 5 inches for the season, Maxwell said.

To continue on a normal track or even produce an above-normal year of precipitation that would justify predictions of a rainy El Niño year for California , the Southern California coast will have to have more days like this.

It’s rare to get much needle-moving precipitation past the end of March. The storm is most likely the last one like it for January.

"At least in the short term, it doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot on the horizon for Southern California," Maxwell said.

Gloria said in the news conference that he had just got back from a conference of U.S. mayors in Washington, where attendees were in agreement that extreme weather, fueled by climate change, was the new normal.

"It doesn't matter what mayor from what part of the country, what you see is people having experiences exactly like this one.

"'We're used to snow, but not this much snow,' or, 'we're used to rain but not this much rain.' These unusual weather patterns that are really beyond people's typical experience ... it's exactly what all of us are describing and why so many of us are so active on the issue of climate change."

Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

Powerful storm brings more flood risk to San Diego, especially North County

A severe storm has already hit Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Orange counties and made its way into San Diego county.

The wet and windy weather is coming down from the north, so local areas likely to get the hardest hit are in North County — like Oceanside and Fallbrook.

“We've not only had a lot of response from our specialized teams like our water rescues, but also our hand crews and our fire engines just helping with preparedness for the public. Sandbagging, helping people with flooding situations,” said San Diego County Fire Protection District Fire Captain Mark Bales.

He said Two Cal Fire teams — including one in Jamul and another at San Diego Del Dios Fire Station 77 — are ready for swift water rescues.

“The majority of our target hazards here are any of our flood control channels,” Bales said.

The Fire Captain said the last few weeks have been busy across the county, and they’re on high alert.

“Any of our city areas like Escondido that has their large flood control channel that comes from the foothills all the way down through Harmony Grove and Elfin Forest — that's a big target hazard, we've had rescues there in the past,” he said.

The flood-prone State Route 78 experienced storm-related issues that caused some closures and detours on Monday. The incoming heavier rains could make travel difficult on other local freeways as well.

“In particular for (SR) 78, one of the biggest problems is there's a creek that runs parallel to the freeway,” said Caltrans District 11 Chief Deputy Karen Jewel. “When that creek raised up its water level from all the rains, our drain (flows) into that creek and that water just backed up.”

Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Southern California counties due to the storm, including San Diego.

Flood risk is slight to moderate for much of the county, which can be particularly dangerous in places with low-water crossings .

The San Diego County advises people to not drive through flooded roadways. They say drivers should turn around and find an alternative route in order to remain safe.

The National Weather service said San Diego County will see the highest rain and flooding impacts Monday night into Tuesday morning.

‘Thousand-year storm’ leaves San Diego reeling from punishing rainfall, floods

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In a matter of minutes Monday morning, communities across southeastern San Diego were transformed into disaster zones: Families fled their homes in chest-deep floodwaters ; vehicles were swept downstream as roads became rivers ; residents cried for help from their rooftops.

A deluge of rainfall from what city officials are calling a “thousand-year storm” forced hundreds of rescues , flooded an untold number of homes and businesses and caused millions of dollars in estimated damage. The floodwaters had mostly receded by Tuesday afternoon, revealing the devastating aftermath of California’s latest climate emergency — and leaving hundreds without housing and transportation, and with ruined valuables and personal belongings.

“The damage and the impact was absolutely devastating,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said at a Tuesday news conference . “Entire lives changed in just a few minutes.”

“The amount of water that we saw yesterday would have overwhelmed any city drainage system,” he said. “This dumping of rainwater is unprecedented in most San Diegans’ lifetimes. None of us alive have seen anything quite like this.”

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 rainfall event , according to Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. The airport recorded 2.73 inches, more than its typical total for the entire month of January.

“That is 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 saw rainfall rates well above three-quarters of an inch per hour. Over half an inch per hour can easily cause dangerous flash flooding.

Rain soaks L.A. but shocks San Diego as deluge leads to hundreds of rescues amid flooding

Heavy rains early Monday caused significant flooding across San Diego, closing major roadways, shutting down bus lines and causing power outages.

Jan. 22, 2024

“It’s a ton,” Adams said. “Pretty much anywhere in the country that receives 3 to 4 inches in a three- to four-hour time period is going to see flooding.”

Parts of San Diego were completely inundated.

The city’s southeastern neighborhoods, including Southcrest, Mountain View, Encanto, Logan Heights and San Ysidro, saw 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 estimated, conservatively, that 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, both of which have been walloped by wet winter storms. At the end of December, torrential downpours in and around Oxnard caused similar damage. During that event, Oxnard saw rainfall rates of 3 inches an hour, one of the heaviest downpours ever recorded in the area .

The worry now is that the number of people displaced in San Diego could continue to grow in the coming days. Though no official figure was provided Tuesday, city leaders said they estimated hundreds had been forced from their homes, at least temporarily.

“What was generally 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 saw the worst of the flooding. He said he visited many of those residents early Tuesday, touring a whole apartment complex that took on water, 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 probably still returning home after fleeing, Elo-Rivera said he expected those numbers to rise. City and county officials are asking residents to fill out a voluntary survey about flood damage.

“I think it’s going to take a little bit more time to realize the extent of the damage,” Elo-Rivera said.

On Monday afternoon, Manuel Deleon was unexpectedly called back to the office during his shift driving a tow truck — only to find the office flooded. Roaring water had swept away his personal vehicle.

“The water was out of control,” said Deleon, 47. “My car slipped with the mud and went right into [a nearby] ditch and it was just fully submerged.”

Deleon, whose 2007 BMW was one of dozens of cars carried away in the flash floods, said he wasn’t sure how he’d get to work in the coming days. He attempted to clean the soggy and caked-in mud from the interior, but that was a lost cause .

“This rain took everybody by surprise,” he said. “It’s crazy.”

San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said his crews made at least 150 rescues Monday, in addition to 30 animal rescues.

“We literally saw over 100 rescues in the Southcrest neighborhood alone,” Stowell said.

“Luckily we saw very few injuries and no fatalities,“ Stowell said, calling that feat “remarkable” given the extent of the emergency.

More than 1,000 people remained without power Tuesday, after widespread outages Monday, according to the San Diego Gas & Electric outage map.

Although much of San Diego was under a flood watch all day Monday, city officials said they were not prepared for the extent — and speed — of what came down.

“Nobody anticipated the severity of the storm,” Gloria said. “We got a lot more rain than [what was predicted] in a much shorter amount of time.”

He said he planned to meet with the National Weather Service to discuss the disparity between forecasts and what occurred but emphasized that his teams were currently focused on recovery.

Adams said the circumstances Monday ended up being a perfect storm for rare, heavy rainfall in San Diego: extreme atmospheric moisture and a storm path over its downtown — which forecasters warned residents about as soon as possible, she said.

Just 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. Soon after, a larger stretch of southwestern California was placed under a flash flood warning .

“We used pretty intense warnings,” Adams said. “We tried to really heighten the message … [that] this is a really dangerous situation that doesn’t happen in San Diego proper that often.”

The day before the storm, the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion warned that the ground, already saturated from storms over the weekend, could heighten flood concerns. But forecasters said it was still hard to predict how much rain would fall, and where.

By Monday morning, Adams said the situation developed rapidly, with that intense atmospheric moisture — what she called 250% to 350% of normal — and the direct storm path aligning.

That “really lead to torrential rainfall across the county, but especially focused on downtown and the 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 is real, it is 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 of necessary work hasn’t been budgeted, didn’t help.

Elo-Rivera said he would like to see those much-needed funds allocated, and in an equitable way — noting that many of the communities affected most were working-class, with a majority of Latino and Black residents.

These communities “have long been under-invested in and divested in and ignored by the city,” he said. “Public investment in climate resiliency is incredibly important … [especially] prioritizing the communities that have been left behind and are most likely to be devastated by events like yesterday.”

More to Read

California has underestimated the epic potential of future flooding, research shows

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‘Rivers in the sky’ have drenched California, yet even more extreme rains are possible

April 25, 2024

L.A. staved off disaster this time. But our luck is running out as extreme weather worsens

Feb. 11, 2024

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Grace Toohey is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering breaking news for the Fast Break Desk. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Sentinel and the Advocate in Baton Rouge. Toohey is a Maryland native and proud Terp.

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In San Diego, Furious Deluge Floods Homes and Freeways

An intense downpour brought more rain to the city on Monday than Tropical Storm Hilary did last year.

By Corina Knoll and Vik Jolly

Corina Knoll reported from Los Angeles, and Vik Jolly from San Diego.

An unusual torrent of rain and flash flooding hit the San Diego area on Monday, shutting down highways, swamping roads and leaving some residents to watch helplessly as water swept away their cars or wreaked havoc on their homes.

The deluge caught many off guard, as up to three inches fell in the span of three hours, according to the National Weather Service. By early afternoon, the agency noted that the San Diego River was actively flooding, with water levels still rising.

As reports of damage surfaced, Todd Gloria, the mayor of San Diego, declared a state of emergency and urged residents to avoid any unnecessary travel. Mr. Gloria said the city was coordinating efforts with local, state and federal agencies to ensure a comprehensive response. Displaced residents were directed to an evacuation center set up by the American Red Cross.

Officials found themselves fielding numerous rescue calls in an area that received more rain on Monday than it did during the much feared Tropical Storm Hilary last August.

“By all indications, this will shake out as one of the top 10 wettest days for the airport here out of all the climate records going back to the 1800s,” said Brian Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. “It’s been a day, yeah.”

Hundreds of people were rescued from homes and flooded parts of the city, including areas along the San Diego River, the Tijuana River Valley and low-lying coastal stretches, San Diego officials said. No storm-related deaths had been reported as of Monday evening.

In the Mountain View neighborhood of San Diego, which was hit particularly hard, many residents spent the day attempting to sweep water out of their garages, an act that did not feel as futile as addressing the mud that had flowed into their homes. The water, judging by the telltale brown lines on the exterior walls of residences, had been several feet high. Inside, a thick sludge covered carpets.

“The whole house is, like, under mud,” Lara Lockwood, 43, said as she anxiously took in the scene outside the home she has lived in for eight years. The patio table had been flung to the front of her garage. The yard had become an impassable marsh. The wooden fence had been ripped apart. And her cat, Bagheera, was missing.

“I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” said Ms. Lockwood, an interior designer. She planned to take several days off work. “It is very overwhelming. I don’t even know where to start.”

Her neighbor, Jarvis Landers, 65, worried about his flooded cars. A forklift operator and a shipping and receiving clerk, Mr. Landers has lived in the neighborhood for decades and worried that a nearby drainage ditch was plugged up by debris because it had not been properly cleaned out before the storm.

Across the region, drivers found themselves navigating clogged roadways or, worse, forced to abandon their cars altogether. Sections of major freeways looked more like rivers. In some areas, vehicles had been swept by floodwaters and tossed askew.

On the 15 freeway, lanes were shut down after a semi truck turned over. Cleanup crews were also scooping up mud that had flowed onto the roadway.

Some schools in the region closed early because of flooding or loss of power, while those at others were advised to shelter in place. About 14,500 San Diego Gas & Electric customers had lost electricity as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us .

“We have had power outages, loss of communication and flooding at some sites,” the National School District in San Diego County said on X .

Coronado, a resort city across the bay from San Diego, asked its 22,000 residents on Monday night to limit their use of faucets, showers and laundry machines because the local sewer system was overwhelmed and needed 24 hours to recover.

After two homeless shelters flooded, the city of San Diego scrambled to transport people to public gymnasiums. The San Diego Central Library also closed after its parking garage flooded, while the San Diego Police Department announced that both of the front counters at its downtown headquarters would be closed for the day. Sandbags were offered at recreation centers across the city.

“We are very spoiled here in San Diego,” said Argelia Ventura, the manager at Maggie’s Cafe in the Barrio Logan neighborhood. “We knew rain was coming but it was surprising that it was that heavy.”

Ms. Ventura, 46, watched the downpour through the restaurant’s giant windows and knew that it would diminish the lunch rush that arrives for chile relleno omelets and chilaquiles. Only about 10 tables had been filled by the afternoon. One family scurried in only because their apartment had flooded.

“It does hurt a lot, because usually we are going day to day,” Ms. Ventura said. She planned to close early.

Corina Knoll is the Los Angeles bureau chief. She writes features about California and covers breaking news. Previously, she spent more than a decade with The Los Angeles Times, where she contributed to two Pulitzer Prizes. More about Corina Knoll

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California Copes with Heavy Rain, Flooding in Latest ‘Atmospheric River’ Storm

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Emergency officials in several California counties spent Friday patrolling levies and swollen rivers as an “atmospheric river” storm drenched the already-sodden state with torrential rains, causing floods that washed out roads and prompted evacuations.

The latest deluge from dense streams of Pacific moisture sweeping California’s skies soaked some mountain areas still clogged with piles of snow dumped by a recent spate of paralyzing blizzards, while bringing even more snow to higher elevations.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said it was investigating what role, if any, late-February snowstorms may have played in the demise of at least eight people, most of them elderly, found to have died alone while snowbound in their homes over the past two weeks.

Residents in the town of Big Bear and nearby mountain enclaves have said their communities were ill-prepared for the severity of winter storms that local authorities called unprecedented for Southern California’s high country.

The latest blast of heavy showers and gusty winds arrived Thursday night and peaked early Friday, sweeping a vast region that is home to some 26 million people, including greater Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay area and metropolitan Sacramento.

Flood watches and advisories extended from San Diego and Mexican border to the Shasta-Cascade region of northern California.

The National Weather Service reported rainfall totals ranging from 3 inches to nearly 10 inches across the region.

President Joe Biden on Friday declared an emergency in California, ordering federal assistance to help state and local authorities cope with the severe weather.

The storm was the product of what meteorologists call an atmospheric river, a high-altitude current of dense, subtropical moisture streaming into the West Coast from the warm Pacific waters around Hawaii.

It marks the 10th such weather system to hit California since Christmas, adding to an exceptionally wet, snowy winter in a state that in recent years has been plagued far more by drought and wildfires than by severe precipitation.

Among areas hardest hit on Friday were riverfront communities in central California where numerous streams engorged by runoff of rain and melting snow from surrounding mountains were transformed into raging torrents.

‘FULLY SATURATED’

About 2,000 residents were under evacuation orders and warnings in San Luis Obispo County, as crews there spent the day monitoring levees, creeks and rivers and filling sandbags, said Rachel Monte Dion, the county’s emergency services coordinator.

Some personnel spent hours in trailers watching for flooding in low-lying areas across the county, which was pummeled by heavy downpours in January, causing a levy to fail and damaging homes.

“Since January, it’s been raining steadily here and so our ground is fully saturated and our creeks are full,” Dion said, adding that flooding on Friday struck parts of the coastal wine country town of Cambria and the beachfront community of Oceano.

The collapse of one roadway in Paso Robles for the second time since January left a couple hundred residents outside that town cut off again, Dion said.

In Santa Cruz County, another road washed out by a flooded creek near the town of Soquel left at least 400 homes in adjacent foothill and mountain communities isolated, county spokesperson Jason Hoppin said.

Elsewhere in the county, communities along the swiftly rising San Lorenzo River were ordered evacuated before it reached flood stage, then receded, Hoppin said. Authorities were still keeping their eye on the Pajaro River, which drains a much larger area and thus takes longer to rise and fall, he said.

Evacuation orders were issued along the Monterey County banks of that river, where “the levee is a little bit lower” than on the Santa Cruz County side, Hoppin said.

On Friday morning, the weather service issued a flash-flood warning for parts of Tulare County, urging residents: “Move to higher ground now! This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.”

The Tulare County sheriff has issued evacuation orders and warnings for several areas where rivers and streams had either overrun their banks, were nearing dangerously high levels or where a levee was breached. At least one bridge was reported washed out.

The growing frequency and intensity of such storms amid bouts of prolonged drought are symptomatic of human-caused climate change, experts say. The swing from one extreme to another has increased the difficulty of managing California’s precious water supplies while minimizing flood and wildfire risks.

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Diesel Spilled Into San Diego Bay After Point Loma Boat Fire

The vessel ended up sinking due to the amount of water it took on during the firefight, by karla rendon-alvarez • published april 21, 2021 • updated on april 21, 2021 at 11:06 am.

A boat fire in Point Loma on Tuesday led to a diesel spill in the San Diego Bay, according to the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s (CDFW) Office of Spill Prevention and Response.

The blaze was reported at about 2:30 a.m. when firefighters were notified of a burning boat at the Southwestern Yacht Club. At the scene, personnel were met with a “well-involved” interior fire on a 48-foot cabin cruiser docked at the yacht club, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

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Crew on-scene of boat fire that resulted in spilled diesel in San Diego Bay. 48-foot cabin cruiser caught fire early this AM & released unknown amt. of est. 400 gallons onboard. Sheen contained & no oiled wildlife observed. Salvagers dewatering boat to be removed from waterway. pic.twitter.com/oHgvOiDpDz — CDFW Spill Prevention & Response (@CalSpillWatch) April 21, 2021

With help from the Harbor Police Department, crews were able to douse the fire and prevent flames from spreading to other vessels. Due to the amount of water the fiery boat took in the firefight, it sank despite de-watering attempts.

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As a result of the incident, diesel spilled into the waters. CDFW said it did not see any wildlife oiled in the spill. Authorities said the damaged boat will be removed from the waterway as crews tend to the spill.

No one was hurt in the fire and SDFD added that the total loss in the blaze was estimated at $350,000.

It is unclear what sparked the fire.

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