By Aneri Upadhyay
Staff Writer
Just one month into the new year, people are already experiencing intense flooding and destruction across California as homes and schools are left as debris.
San Diego, California experienced the heaviest rainfall during January in its history with half an inch every hour coming down in the span of one day, as reported by Reuters. These floods destroyed homes, parked cars and closed highways. It was also reported that one elementary school had up to three inches of flood water in its classrooms.
Daniel Campos, the supervisor of Spill the Beans Coffee and Bagels in San Diego, told Reuters that the rain started out of seemingly nowhere.
“Water was bubbling up from manhole covers; it was crazy,” Campos said.
The authorities called it a miracle that only a few people were injured, according to the New York Times. However, many residents are still in shock over their homes being destroyed within seconds.
Luis Reyes, an 18-year-old resident of San Diego, touched on the impact this flooding had on him and his family.
“Electronics, clothes, pictures, memories, everything’s gone. I lost everything in that flood,” he told the New York Times. “All my memories are gone.”
Many residents wondered why a larger warning was not given in advance so that people could have prepared for the flooding. Duncan MacLuan, who climbed to his roof with his roommate during the flooding, told the New York Times that an alert came warning about possible flooding after the water was already rising.
“The rain was already eight inches deep by the time the warning came,” said MacLuan.
Alex Tardy, a senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, said that the total amount of rain predicted was correct but the intensity was unknown.
“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,” Tardy told the New York Times. “So there’s complications there. It’s not really an excuse, but there’s always those variables.”
California is not the only state with harsh weather conditions. As stated in AP News, parts of the Midwest were predicted to have freezing rain and snow. Heavy showers and thunderstorms were also predicted this past week in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and the Gulf Coast.
