Southcrest man files claim against San Diego over flooding damage from January storm

A Southcrest man who had previously sued the city of San Diego due to flooding has filed a tort claim against the city.

This time, Greg Montoya alleges the city failed to maintain the berms and storm drainage systems at Chollas Creek, which led to flooding damage on Beta Street, where he has lived for nearly 30 years, amid a devastating storm on Jan. 22.

Montoya filed a claim against the City of San Diego for at least $700,000 to repair his damaged home and replace everything he lost. He is also asking the city to maintain the infrastructure of the Southcrest Community.

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The city has 45 days to accept or reject the claim. Montoya's attorney, Evan Walker, said if the city rejects the claim, Montoya could file a lawsuit against the city. If the city accepts the claim, it would accept liability and would potentially pay a certain amount of money.

“I know we can show negligence because I have so much documentation. Now, I’m finding out there’s a lot of people who contacted city officials and told them to clean that drain, that Chollas Creek to clean it,” Montoya said.

Montoya’s home flooded in 2018. The following year, he filed a lawsuit against the city of San Diego for damages that were caused to his home from that flood.

“We learned that the creek had been clogged with debris and some other conditions led to the flooding of the Beta street area in Southcrest and so we sued the city and we litigated that lawsuit for about 2.5 years,” Evan Walker, the attorney representing Montoya said.

Although they reached a settlement with the city, Montoya said not much has changed since.

“Since the last flood of 2018, since that flood, I would go and check the channel down there and clean the grade off, and check the channel in the Chollas Creek, it would never get done,” Montoya said.

Montoya said getting the city to keep up with the maintenance of the drainage system is a struggle he has been dealing with for several years.

“You have the combination of no drainage behind this 3600 and 3700 block, then you only got one drain on this entire area which is way down there by 3615," he said. "You can go down there to confirm it if you follow that drain. It discharges into that creek. At that time [of January's storm] it was filled with trash and debris, just like the rest of the creek is."

For those in a similar situation as Montoya, legal experts recommend documenting everything: take pictures of the damage; keep your receipts for repairs, and keep a log of anything you are throwing away.

San Diego storm resource guide: Sandbags, reporting damage, help centers and more

“We have frustration, we’re stressed, we don’t know what’s going on, like I say, this is a rebuilding,” Cynthia Johnson, who lives in the community said.

Dozens of homes in Southcrest continue recovering from the floods. The streets are filled with volunteers sharing a meal with families who lost everything.

However, neighbors like Johnson say there is a long road ahead.

“We feel in the shadow, like we’re not really important, we’ve been having problems with the canal for a long time and we feel like nobody listened,” Johnson said.