SAN DIEGO — Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday declared a state of emergency in San Diego and Ventura counties to help recover from Monday's storm, as dry weather moved into Southern California.
The emergency proclamation includes provisions for unemployment benefits for impacted residents and waiving fees to replace records such as driver's license cards and birth certificates. The declaration also allows for fairgrounds and state-owned properties to be used as evacuation and staging sites, as the Office of Emergency Services sees fit.
The chilly winter storm that arrived in the San Diego area over the weekend delivered steady downpours along with widespread flooding that swamped roadways and neighborhoods across the region.
The National Weather Service said Monday was the fifth wettest day in San Diego since 1850.
In the late morning Monday, with rainfall rates approaching a half- inch per hour, the NWS issued a flash-flood warning for the western valleys and the ocean coastline of the county, effective through midday.
As of 3 p.m., according to the NWS, the top local three-day precipitation totals included 4.51 inches on Otay Mountain, 4.49 in Point Loma, 4.21 in National City, 4.01 in the Palomar area, 3.89 in La Mesa, 3.4 in Fallbrook, 3.39 on Birch Hill and 3.38 on Dulzura Summit.
Most other locales in the county received from 1 to 3.5 inches of moisture over the period, meteorologists reported.
Mayor Todd Gloria declared an emergency in the city due to heavy rainfall and flash flooding. The county of San Diego proclaimed a local emergency Monday.
Mayor Gloria and city staff held a news conference Tuesday at Lincoln High School, the location of a Red Cross shelter for approximately 41 flood victims, according to the city.
Gloria toured Southcrest Tuesday morning. “I saw homes that were destroyed by floodwaters, floodwaters that reached the ceilings. In some cases, I saw cars had been picked up and moved down the street, floated away from where they had been parked, got swamped with water and with mud. I saw entire lives changed in just a few minutes,” Gloria said.
After Gloria’s news conference, residents of Mountain View had their say, pulling the mayor over to speak with him. “I just got a brand-new refrigerator, brand new furniture everything's gone, everything is gone!” one woman told Gloria.
Many wanted to know why the flood control channels near their homes had not been maintained. Residents on 42nd Street said they have been complaining to the city about it.
“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,” said Robert Banks, a homeowner on 42nd Street.
The flood channel that overflowed in Banks’ neighborhood is referred to as South Chollas Creek in city records. It runs from Mountain View to Southcrest.
City records show it was supposed to be maintained as part of an emergency maintenance plan dating back to 2016. CBS 8 asked the city's stormwater director, Todd Snyder, about that.
“The environmental agencies require us when we remove vegetation from our channels, we have to mitigate or purchase land or put that native vegetation back somewhere off site,” said Snyder.
He said the city has about 200 flood control channels, and because of high maintenance costs and required environmental review, only about 4 channels get maintained per year.
More than two dozen power outages hit communities from the South Bay to the North County, at least some of them related to the inclement weather, according to San Diego Gas & Electric. In Lincoln Park, Logan Heights and Mountain View, blackouts left more than 9,000 addresses without electrical service in the late morning and early afternoon Monday.
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