'From an apocalyptic movie': San Diego residents describe escaping from flood

They fled to rooftops. Abandoned cars in the middle of rough waters. I grabbed kayaks to cross flooded streets. I looked for neighbors and shouted at strangers.

The rare rainstorm that lashed the San Diego area on Monday forced scores of residents to navigate life-threatening scenes that they found difficult to believe even as they recounted them.

Authorities would later call it a miracle that no one was killed and very few people were injured in a sudden catastrophic storm that prompted state and local leaders to declare a state of emergency.

“What happened yesterday was extraordinary,” said San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria.

On Tuesday, officials assessed the devastation in a region where very few residents have flood insurance. The record pace of rainfall – a deluge of nearly four inches in three hours – had quickly overwhelmed drainage systems. This was the fourth-highest total in San Diego history, dating back to 1850, according to the National Weather Service.

Many residents face losses that seem more impossible than their harrowing escapes. Some wondered why government officials hadn't done more to warn residents or call on them to evacuate before they were surrounded by floodwaters. Others were still in disbelief that their belongings had been destroyed in an instant.

'Electronics, clothes, photos, memories, everything is gone. I lost everything in that flood,” Luis Reyes said of the apartment he shares with his family. “All my memories are gone.”

Mr. Reyes, 18, was at their home in National City, just south of San Diego, when the water rushed in and quickly reached his waist. His parents and sister had already left that day. He managed to grab a shoebox of greeting cards and his two chihuahuas before climbing out his bedroom window. Outside he saw floating vehicles colliding with each other.

“It just felt like a scene from an apocalyptic movie,” said Mr. Reyes, who works as a barista at Starbucks.

Residents a few miles away in San Diego's Southcrest neighborhood were mucking out yards of debris, overwhelmed by the task ahead of them in their homes, where mud covered the floors. Broken fences littered the streets in disarray. Dirty furniture littered the sidewalks.

Duncan MacLuan, 34, and his roommate had climbed to their roof during the storm and waited hours for the water to recede. They watched others do the same. Some residents hopped on jet skis or longboards to help rescue stranded people and pets.

“We had dogs and cats on the roof next to us,” Mr MacLuan said. “It was crazy. I've never seen anything like it.”

A neighbor's chickens in a chicken coop eventually drowned, he added.

Growing up in North Carolina, Mr. MacLuan said he was used to hurricanes. But this experience upset him. He had received an alert on his phone about a possible flash flood, but said it arrived too late.

“The rain was already eight inches deep when the warning came,” Mr MacLuan said.

The National Weather Service has issued two flash flood warnings for different parts of the region: one at 8:21 a.m. for the northern part of the county, and one at 9:34 a.m. for other areas, including the city of San Diego. Each notification was followed by a mobile emergency alert for some residents.

“The magnitude and intensity were underpredicted,” said Alex Tardy, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego. Mr Tardy said the agency had correctly forecast the total number of rainy days in advance, but the intensity was double what was expected in a region where forecasting can be difficult.

“A lot of places in the country don't have a giant ocean next door, and they don't have hills and different types of terrain,” Mr. Tardy said. 'So there are complications. It's not really an excuse, but there are always those variables.”

As elsewhere in California during last year's atmospheric rivers, several neighborhoods hit Monday were among San Diego's most impoverished. Residents whose homes were flooded said they had worried for years that nearby canals had not been properly maintained, leaving them vulnerable.

“These communities of concern, these underinvested communities are clearly and demonstrably the hardest hit across the region,” said Leslie Reynolds, executive director of Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, which works with residents and nonprofits along the Chollas Creek Watershed that are overwhelmed used to be. on Monday. “These are communities with disproportionate pollution, unemployment and chronic health problems, all of which will be exacerbated by the coming climate challenges. It's heartbreaking.”

Rep. Juan Vargas, a Democrat whose district includes southwestern San Diego County starting along the Mexican border, said Tuesday that his office was fielding calls from distraught homeowners wondering how they would pay for the damages. Only 8,128 households out of 1.15 million in San Diego County have flood insurance.

“A lot of people don't have insurance and a lot of people are going to suffer a lot of damage,” Mr. Vargas said, adding that his office is working with the federal government to see what help is available.

“We're trying to figure that out right now with FEMA to see if we can do anything for them,” he said. “And the damage is enormous.”

While driving through his district during the storm, Mr. Vargas noticed clogged storm drains, which he said meant lawsuits against local governments were likely.

“Certainly, the city was unable to maintain them for whatever reason,” Mr. Vargas said. “Cities have tight budgets, and I sympathize with them.”

City of San Diego officials estimated that infrastructure suffered $6 to $7 million in damage. Mayor Gloria said no drainage system could have handled the sudden deluge that hit San Diego on Monday, but he acknowledged the city needed to build more storm defenses in the future. He said residents may have to pay more for upgrades and maintenance as climate change causes more intense storms.

“What the rainfall patterns used to be are not what they are now, and they are not what they will be in the future,” said Kris McFadden, the city's deputy chief operating officer. “That's something we have to plan for.”

On Tuesday morning, the Reyes family, who had spent the night in a shelter, returned to the home they had lived in for a decade to take stock of what they were able to save. All they found was a swampy mess.

Dirt covered the soaked carpet. Water flowed over the linoleum floor. The sofas they had recently purchased were completely soaked. Their belongings were thrown around and scattered throughout the rooms. There was a musty smell throughout the building.

Dulce Reyes, 24, had just gotten a job at Sephora after being unemployed for two months and wondered how she would get work. The family's cars were flooded. They depended on rides from friends.

Any hope they had gathered overnight was shattered at the sight of what would be an overwhelming cleanup job.

“Everything is just a mess,” she said. “It's like starting all over again.”