At least three deaths are under investigation to determine if they were caused by a powerful Jan. 22 storm that brought torrential downpours and caused devastation, particularly in underserved communities.
A spokesperson for the county of San Diego said the Medical Examiner is investigating the deaths of two people in Santee and a third man who died in a car crash in Lemon Grove as possibly storm-related.
Little information was available on the incident that led to the death of two people in Santee -- a 48-year-old man identified as Manuel Andres Perez and a woman who has not yet been identified. The woman was found in brush near Forester Creek the afternoon of the storm, the Medical Examiner's office said. Paramedics attempted to help the woman but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Friday, the county released a sketch of the woman and asked for the public's assistance to identify her. Also released to aid in their search was a photo of the tattoo the woman had on her right leg -- a dolphin with wings and hearts -- and the jewelry she was wearing; the bracelet had the engraving "Mama B and the date 4/21/2006 on it.
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She is believed to be between 45 and 55 years old with brown eyes and hair. She was about 5 feet, 5 inches tall and weighed 229 pounds. The ME said she had no clothing or ID at the time of her death.
In the latter incident, the Medical Examiner's office said a 67-year-old man identified as Harold James Hooker was driving a minivan southbound on Lemon Grove Avenue when he crashed into concrete debris in the roadway. Hooker's car then went up an embankment and struck a pole before rolling back down the embankment, according to the ME's office.
Rescue crews attempted to revive Hooker but he was declared dead at the scene. The ME is investigating the case as a traffic-related storm death, although the cause remains under investigation.
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The Jan. 22 storm dumped enough rain in six hours to match a quarter-year's rainfall for San Diego, according to NBC 7 Meteorologists. City leaders called the storm a thousand-year storm, a weather term used to describe extremely rare flooding events.
The rain event prompted states of emergency from the cities of Coronado and San Diego, the county of San Diego, and eventually the state of California to aid with recovery efforts. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed by floodwaters, particularly in areas surrounding Chollas Creek in San Diego, in San Ysidro, National City and Lemon Grove.
Editor's note: A previous version of this article contained a sketch of the woman found near Forester Creek that the county released to the public to help identify her. That sketch has been removed since the woman has been identified.
