‘Just Blowing Water': What it was like living through the Great Flood of 2024

Hundreds of San Diego families who woke up on Monday found themselves homeless within hours, some after having fought for their lives.

Hit particularly hard by the storm, which had been forecast to drop an inch of rain rapidly, but, through a meteorological phenomenon known as "training," ended up dumping three or four times that amount by noon, were many of the neighborhoods in Southeast San Diego, including Southcrest, where the water, seeking low ground, swiftly accumulated in a flash flood, and neighbors young and old were suddenly scrambling up ladders and railings to the rooftops of their single-story homes, leaving some to panic and fearfully wonder: Would they be high enough.

On Tuesday, an NBC 7 crew, including video photographer Jeff Herrera, was on Beta Street, where the deluge was felt with fury and speed the day prior. Duncan MacLuan, a construction worker living with a roommate in a small apartment complex, shared the details of his harrowing morning — Ed.:

Duncan MacLuan: So, woke up and took my first videos around 10:28, and it was already raining pretty hard. And then by 10:43, it's already 8 1/2 inches deep out back. By 10:59, it's coming in the house underneath the floorboards. And then we're already on the roof, and they're starting to rescue people by 1.

Here's Luna on the roof — that's our neighbor's dog. I mean, there's my car. That's after the water started to go down. You can already see the water's dropping at that point.

NBC 7's Jeff Herrera: So out the back, it was blowing. It was rolling like a raging river, right?

DM: Dude. The front, the back, everywhere. It was nonstop, just blowing water.

JH: And did you see cars coming?

DM: Down the channel? My God. We saw a white car coming down the back down here, we saw a guy surfing on his white truck. I told him to grab my neighbor's fruit tree so he could get off his truck. He did, and he ended up sitting on his chicken coop for a couple of hours.

[Herrera asks MacLuan for a tour of his home — Ed.]

DM: Go see some damage. Yeah.

It's kind of gross.

Had to make a little pathway so people can get through. Do you want to start with the cars?

I woke up around like 10, 10:15, realized it was raining pretty bad outside, came outside and [laughs] threw my flip-flops on. I was going to run out in the street with my roommate and see what was going on, and I realized, once I got to this gate here, I was like, "It's a little deep." So we turned back, and then we just sat and kind of looked out the windows waiting for everything to die down, and water kept rising. Let's see, by [checks time-codes on phone videos] … 10:28 was when I first woke up and got the video of it flooding out front. Let's see, by 10:43, it was 8 1/2 inches deep out back.

By 10:59, there's flooding in my house, and I was on the roof by 1 o'clock and already getting rescued around, like, 1:30, 2 o'clock, I think, 2:30. Something like that.

JH: What do you mean? Rescued? You couldn't get down by yourself?

DM: No, the water was this high [gestures to chin]. So, yeah, anyone tries to get down to that water, you're getting washed away, you're just going, you're gone.

Yeah, me and my roommate started grabbing everything we could, like any clothes that we had dry, packing up, what we could, just to have something.

JH: What were your neighbors doing?

DM: Same thing, man. Everyone was kind of panicking. We came out front with some bags. We saw our neighbor Naya. She was out there standing on the railings right here. And then our other neighbor was standing on the railings. Then me and Justin decided, "Hey, we were roofers, so we might as well get up on the roof. It's high ground."

So then we climbed and helped the other ladies up on the roof. And the next thing you know, all the other neighbors are up on the roof. They got dogs and cats next door on the roof. And it was insane. It was absolutely insane, man.

JH: Was there any moment where you got on the roof: "I'm safe" or … "this could get worse"?

DM: Yeah, honestly. kind of panicked a little bit when it started raining again kind of hard while we were up on the roof. I think that was about, want to say around noon, 12:30 yesterday, we're up on the roof, waiting to get rescued, water's still rising at that point. And then it starts raining again while we're on the roof. And I'm just like, "All right, cool. I'm stuck on a roof in the rain. My house is flooded. I mean, got people standing on top of their cars." It was mayhem.

JH: Who did you think was going to rescue you?

Honestly, I had no idea. I was kind of hoping, but I'm a strong swimmer.

[MacLuan stops to show Herrara his flood-damaged vehicle — Ed.]

DM: Fully loaded. 2018 Kia Soul. Completely demolished. Absolutely demolished. When I looked out front … I've got video of it. The water is literally inside the car up to the skylight. It doesn't even turn on now. It's completely dead. Yeah. Total loss on that one…. I still owe 12 1/2 grand on that car. Yeah. That's a bad one.

Cleared a little pathway so we're not sloshing through some mud. This was all barricaded and this door closed here yesterday, so we couldn't even get out there … all the water rushed [debris and trash barrels] up to the gate and closed that gate. We couldn't even get out that way.

Justin used this [railing] to get up [a stepladder], and then the water washed it down. So then that was there. So then I climbed up here [on a railing], put my foot in here, climbed up on the roof with his help, and then Annabelle was standing here and I was over on the railing just chilling.

Everyone was freaking out, man. No one knew what the hell was going on. Welcome to my lovely crib … I don't think MTV would like this one very much.

I mean, it's a total loss. Everything in the house. Washer and dryer got moved. They're hanging out of the freaking closet. Fridge's toppled over, food everywhere. I mean, you can see how high the water was [gesturing up to his waist near the wall, where a high-water mark is clearly visible.] That's indoors [and they're two steps up aboveground]. Outdoors, the water comes up to here [gestures to chin] on me for the waterline.

I mean, everything's lost, dude.

It's freezing. Cold water. This water is ice cold.

JH: You're probably happy to get up on the roof, right?

DM: Absolutely.

Table gone. Glass cabinet, everything.

[Somehow, a ceiling light was on in the bedroom — Ed.}

SDG&E's be been doing good work, I guess. You guys want to wash some clothes in my nice, clean washer [laughs; the stackable units have toppled and are mud-stained.] Yeah, man. It's quite the mess.

I mean, it looks like my bed might have floated. I mean, it's definitely wet here, but, yeah, I think maybe the clothes that I had on the bed are salvageable, but that's about it. Everything in the closet is ruined. It's a total loss. I mean, it's all destroyed.

Everything in this house was brand new, too. We were the first ones to move in here with all the new stuff. The washer and dryer: brand new. The washer is full of muddy water. I mean, everything was brand new when we moved in. We literally just stocked up some [groceries] too.

[A bottle of sparkling juice sits, undamaged on a counter — Ed.]

I did get to save my $1,600 bottle of tequila that was a gift. But, yeah, it's all done. Everything I have. I have renters insurance. I don't know if we're covered with flood. I mean, I know how that works.

[Walking back out] Ugh. So gross.