On Thursday, the City's Stormwater Division was seen in Southcrest removing plants, trash, and other debris from the storm channel that Beta Street dead ends on.
In January, the same storm channel flooded surrounding homes, destroying many Southcrest resident's property.
That same storm channel, which the City refers to as the Alpha One Channel, is the same one that Southcrest residents tell ABC 10News they begged the City to clear out for years.
The City received more than $8M in funding, for its Stormwater Department, to maintain the storm channels that flooded neighborhoods like Southcrest.
After the flood, the City made an emergency declaration and said it removed more than 9,800 tons of debris. The City said it removed an additional 421 tons of debris and vegetation, since July.
Lester Del Rosario, Senior Civil Engineer with the City of San Diego, said, "I think overall what we want to convey to the communities is that we plan on doing year-around maintenance. We're doing what we can clearing out as much trash, debris, and things of that nature."
On Thursday, Del Rosario said he and his crew were doing minor maintenance in the Alpha One Channel.
"They're using hand tools on what we call invasive species, non-native species of plants, and its all done by hand," Del Rosario said. "They cut the trees, they remove them, and put them in the large mechanizing equipment back here."
The City said this preparation work is coming ahead of the rainy season.
ABC 10News spoke with a Southcrest resident who lives a stone's throw from the job site about the stormwater channel maintenance.
Lucia Rios' home was flooded back in January. Rios said looking at the job site, she still doesn't feel reassured that her home won't be destroyed by flooding again.
"The whole thing needs to be clean for us to be safe," Rios said. "They need to put more gutters everywhere. What happened to us, what happened to all our neighborhoods is not a joke. This is a nightmare."
After the January floods, the City of San Diego’s storm water infrastructure came under fire.
At a Mayoral Debate hosted by ABC 10News on WEDNESDAY….San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said he recognizes work on storm drains has to be ongoing.
Gloria said, "Working with the Biden-Harris administration, the city has secured over $700 million in repair funds that we will deploy in those communities as we speak. That will make the long-term fixes that are necessary to make sure that something like this, if it happens again, will not be as severe."
ABC 10News Anchor Kimberely Hunt asked challenger Larry Turner what he’d do to make sure something like January 22nd doesn’t again.
Turner said, "We had thousands of people displaced and there's never been an apology. It takes a lawsuit by the people for the city to start doing the right thing. And unfortunately, it's going to cost the city a lot more when that happens."
