SAN DIEGO — Four months have passed since floodwaters from a freak storm inundated the unmaintained Chollas View Storm Channel, sending rushing water into neighborhoods, and destroying nearly everything in its path.
For hundreds of San Diegans, January 22nd was a life-altering day. Some lost cars, some lost possessions, while others lost their homes.
Within a matter of hours, the San Diego Fire Department conducted nearly 200 swift water rescues, residents reported damage to approximately 1,000 homes and businesses.
On the four-month anniversary of the unprecedented flood, CBS 8 looks back at the destruction and speaks to neighbors who despite being frustrated by aspects of the relief efforts forge ahead to to fight their way back from disaster.
WATCH: Woman who lost 4 cars in January flood gives update on insurance claims, attorney gives update on class action lawsuit
January 22, 2024: Day of the storm
Weather forecasters predicted a heavy rain storm would land in San Diego on January 22.
On January 21 at 1 pm, forecasters from the National Weather Service issued an official flood-watch flood watch.
The National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for South San Diego at 9:34 am on January 22, cautioning local officials and residents that flooding is "expected to begin shortly."
From 10:07 am to 12:07 pm, the storm stalled over South San Diego and portions of Lemon Grove, Spring Valley, and South La Mesa, dropping 3.15 inches of rain in two hours.
Many residents of San Diego neighborhoods, such as Mountain View, Encanto, Valencia Park, Shelltown, Southcrest, and Lincoln Park knew full well to take any major rain event seriously.
WATCH: Above San Diego | Southeastern San Diego - After the flood (Jan 23)
The South San Diego communities were prone to flooding. Situated in a low-lying flood plain, residents rely on the Chollas Creek Storm Channel to usher stormwater from Spring Valley west to San Diego Bay.
The storm channel, however, has failed before.
In 2018 a group of Encanto residents sued the city after their homes were flooded during a 2018 rain storm - the city settled the lawsuit in 2018.
Despite the settlement, the flooding in South San Diego persisted. Residents told CBS 8 that they would repeatedly call the city before any rain event to request that they clear the densely vegetated Chollas Creek channel.
Ahead of the January 22 storm, was no different.
“We asked them to clean that channel out. It's full of debris up there. We got trees going in there. Those trees are growing in the flood channel,” Robert Banks, a homeowner on 42nd Street, told CBS 8 in the days after the January 22 flood.
In fact, CBS 8 discovered that residents requested that city crews clear out the channel on several occasions in the months and years leading up to the historic rain event.
Still picking up the pieces
Fast forward four months later and hundreds of San Diego residents find themselves with few answers.
While some wait for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help with repairs, others are now looking to sue the city to pay for their losses.
CBS 8 first reported on a class action lawsuit that 270 residents filed against the city for its failure to maintain the channel.
The complaint alleges that the city was aware that the cost to maintain and improve San Diego's aging stormwater system outpaced revenue. Yet, despite this, the city, according to the complaint, took "little to no action to develop and pursue a long-term funding strategy," causing what attorneys say was a "moderate inflow of failures into a deluge of need."
The city will soon face additional legal challenges.
Through a series of public records requests, CBS 8 has obtained more than two dozen tort claims, also referred to as precursors to lawsuits, over damages they suffered during the January 22 flood.
"I don't want, nor should I have to, take out another loan to replace my losses, my loss of income, my pain and suffering and anguish," reads a claim from one resident on 37th Street who had more than $145,000 in damages to his home, his work truck and his tools. "I lived at this address for 50-plus years, and we had water over the curb before...this was beyond comprehension, it is a wonder there wasn't loss of life in this area. This is a disgrace I need help."