SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego's first round of heavy rain this year is expected over the next few days. While these conditions address one of our county's major concerns, it exposes another – one all too familiar to those living in the Southcrest neighborhood.
Signs of last year's historic floods still haunt Monica Garcia and her neighbors on Beta Street.
"Even when it just drizzled,” Garcia says, “It brought back January 22nd once again, and you're traumatized again and you're in panic mode."
She says the water line peaked at 6-and-a-half feet, forcing her family onto the roof of their home. More than a year later, and still, no one can live inside.
“We had to tear down everything,” Garcia said.
She feels the City of San Diego could've done more to minimize the damage by better maintaining the nearby Chollas Creek storm channel.
"The neglect of the city is what actually caused our flood,” Garcia says. “For the water to rise so high was because the canals cannot flow the water the way it's supposed to."
ABC 10News followed through with Mayor Todd Gloria about the impact these floods had on the community, and how the city has responded in the year since. He says, while the city has taken steps to improve the infrastructure, it’s ultimately up to Mother Nature.
"If you have that level of rain, in that concentrated of an area, in that short amount of time, this will happen again,” Mayor Gloria told ABC 10News Anchor Wale Aliyu.
Meanwhile, a different fear lives in the mind of Cal Fire Captain Robert Johnson.
“The drier the vegetation, the more critical fire spread we're gonna have in the event that there's an ignition," he tells ABC 10News.
That's why Johnson welcomes any amount of rain the county can get, as it struggles to escape an extreme drought.
"Optimally, we would get rainfall over an extended period of time to allow that moisture, that water to absorb into the ground, which in return absorbs into the dry brush."
Relief for some, but panic for others.
Garcia says her feeling stem not from a change in the forecast, but from a lack of change by the city.
“Because the number one thing that we all want for our families to live in is in a safe home,” Garcia says, “And drive [on] a safe road, and that canal to be clear so the water runs where it's supposed to run, into the ocean and not into our homes."
A GoFundMe has been set up to help the Garcia family recover from the floods.
