The city of San Diego has sent out more than 10,000 pamphlets to city residents with property in flood plains ahead of the rainy season in an attempt to prevent a repeat of catastrophic flooding that occurred in January, it was announced Wednesday.
The educational pamphlets are intended to help residents prepare for a potential flood, containing guidelines on emergency preparedness, evacuation plans, flood insurance and more.
"Flooding can have a devastating impact on our community, and it's crucial that our residents are well-prepared," San Diego's Stormwater Department Director Todd Snyder said in a statement. "These educational flyers provide the necessary information to help families protect themselves, their homes and their property. We encourage everyone to take steps to prepare before the next big storm."
The preparations come nearly a year after a storm on Jan. 22 that deluged various communities in the San Diego region with more than 2 inches of rain in just two hours. According to the National Weather Service, it was the fourth wettest day in San Diego since 1850.
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The San Diego Stormwater Department received more than 500 calls regarding flooding and other issues during and following the rain.
Tony Tricarico, a homeowner in Southcrest, told NBC 7 on Wednesday he is still cleaning up the damage from the January floods.
"If it happens, I'm stuck," Tricarico said when asked about what he will do if there's another flood. "I'm just going to walk around here and watch the flood come in. After that, there's no negotiating with me. I'm tearing the whole place down. I'm not going to go through this again."
Following the emergency declaration issued in response to the flooding, San Diego conducted emergency maintenance on about 18 miles of channels citywide, including 12 miles in the Chollas Creek watershed. The work, which eschewed the usual lengthy permitting process due to the emergency nature, removed more than 9,800 tons of debris from the channels.
In the spring, Mayor Todd Gloria laid out plans to update the city's aging stormwater infrastructure, part of the reason the January storm impact and flooding was so severe. Several pumps were overwhelmed by the amount of rain. He asked for $85.1 million in the 2024-25 city budget for flood control and green insfrastructure projects.
Ultimately, around $8 million was allocated in the budget to the Stormwater Department to maintain the storm channels.
In June, President Joe Biden's administration gave the city a $32 million low-interest loan and $5 million grant, intended to reduce neighborhood flood risk and bolster the region's defenses for increasingly intense rain events.
The following month, then-City Council President Sean Elo-Rivera decided to withhold a proposed stormwater funding measure from the November 2024 ballot, citing rules that he said would be unfavorable to its passing.
He may have made a wise choice, as in the election, a one-cent sales tax measure which would have shored up the city's $258 million budget deficit failed to pass by a narrow margin. It leaves the city in limbo as to how to maintain service levels.
Measure E, known as the San Diego Transaction and Use Tax, would have increased the tax on transactions in the city by 1%, bringing the total sales tax to 8.75%. The current rate in the city, 7.75%, leaves the city tied for the fourth lowest of the state's 482 municipalities and lower than nine of the county's 18 cities, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
"Measure E would have stabilized the city budget for the foreseeable future and allowed us to build on progress we've made with record infrastructure investments in recent years," Gloria said earlier this month when announcing austerity measures. "Without these additional funds, next year's budget process will be difficult, but we'll use this as an opportunity to re-imagine how the city operates, with a focus on delivering core services: repairing roads and other critical infrastructure, building more housing, addressing homelessness, and keeping San Diegans safe."
Despite the budgetary setbacks, maintenance teams with the Stormwater Department have been clearing vegetation and trash from channels throughout San Diego.
