SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — As rain looms over San Diego, Southcrest resident Lucy Rios is reminded of the devastating floods nearly two years ago that destroyed her family’s three homes.
In 2024, a creek flood and backed-up storm drains wreaked havoc in the Southcrest neighborhood, forcing rescues and leaving many, including Rios, to rebuild from scratch.
“We lost everything. Three homes. My sister’s, mine and my mom’s,” Rios recalled.
Ramon Galindo, Senior Public Information Officer with the city of San Diego, stated, “Over the last several weeks the city has been doing a lot of channel cleaning and maintenance ahead of the storm season.”
Rios has been proactive in preparing for the upcoming rain by clearing debris and leaves around her home, a precaution she hopes will prevent another disaster.
She recently completed rebuilding her home, a process that required maxing out credit cards and borrowing money.
The city of San Diego has taken measures to prevent future flooding by clearing flood-prone creeks and drains and monitoring neighborhoods in real-time.
City employees are actively monitoring the channels to ensure there are no issues during the storm.
With the city’s efforts to mitigate flooding risks and residents like Rios taking precautions, the hope is to avoid a repeat of the 2024 disaster.
San Diegans can report downed trees, blocked storm drains and other storm related issues at sandiego.gov/get-it-done.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KSWB. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KSWB staff before being published.