SAN DIEGO — Anxiety and fears of more flooding Friday in Southcrest and Mountain View turned to relief for now as the Chollas Creek storm channel appeared to be flowing smoothly.
“It looks like it’s a whole new day,” said Raul Landavazo as he checked on the water level of the channel behind his home on 42nd Street. “It looks like it’s flowing now, that’s what it’s supposed to do all along.”
The situation was calm on 42nd Street as rainfall lightened up by the afternoon hours. Sandbags lined doorways and garages, and many people stayed in hotels with vouchers handed out by the YMCA.
“We’re not sure if we’re going to leave yet, but if we do stay, of course, we’re going to try to save what we can,” said Martin Aguilar. “If it gets really bad, we have to get out of here.”
Compared to the disastrous situation January 22 when overflow from the channel flooded nearby homes, people living in the low-lying flood-prone areas of Southcrest and Mountain View are relieved for now.
“Last week we had debris, we had trees, trunks flowing down the river or down the channel,” said Landavazo. “Now it’s just water, there’s no trash, there’s no shopping carts, there’s no tree branches, it’s moving along.”
Steady streams of water rushed into storm drains on Beta Street throughout the day. A big presence of city workers and emergency services personnel could be seen on Beta Street clearing storm drains and monitoring the water level in the channel behind Southcrest Trails Park. Neighbors in the area are eager to recover and move on from last week’s disaster.
“You know I see it like this, but we will prevail. We’re here, everyone from the neighborhood and it’s just a team effort with everyone,” said Michael Wayne.
Residents in the area may be feeling okay for today, but with more rain on the way into next week, they don’t feel like they’re in the clear just yet.
“I mean still a little worried just because there’s still so much damage that people haven’t recovered from, and having people hopefully not lose more of their things to these storms going on,” said Hernandez.
The City of San Diego has set up a temporary shelter for evacuees at the Balboa Park Municipal Gymnasium, 2111 Pan American Road, where they have meals, showers, and beds. Pets are also being accommodated. For more information, visit sandiego.gov/storm.
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