The city cleared some sections of its storm channels this month, including in the Jamacha and Rolando neighborhoods, and cleared a few other areas in November.<\/p>\n
But it last performed maintenance on channels in Southcrest and Mountainview back in August and October. The city says this is due to setbacks from this season\u2019s heavy rains that began in October.<\/p>\n
\u201cChannel conditions must be dry and stable enough for crews and equipment to safely operate within the channels,\u201d department spokesperson Ramon Galindo said in a statement. \u201cSan Diego has received well above average rainfall since October 2025, which delayed planned channel maintenance for multiple days in November and December.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Dec. 31, Galindo says, city crews were sent out on storm patrols, inspecting and cleaning drain inlets and picking up downed vegetation, including in places such as Oak Park, Grant Hill and Southcrest.<\/p>\n
![\"Jose](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-flood-update-7.jpg\")
Jose and his wife Martha Navarro move wet furniture out of their home after historic floods devastated the house on Beta Street in Southcrest in January 2024. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Neighborhoods like these were some of the hardest hit two years ago, but other areas\u00a0were also impacted, including National City and Spring Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re two years here, and this is still something that is fresh,\u201d said Lisa Sheffield, a Spring Valley resident whose home was damaged in the 2024 floods. She\u2019s about 80% done rebuilding. \u201cThat PTSD is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for newer residents like Ernest Smith, who moved to Oak Park six months ago, the recent flooding was a wake-up call. His aunt, who owns his apartment, warned him that the area floods during heavy rains.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe told me not to keep anything important on the ground,\u201d said Smith, who woke up at 6 a.m. on Jan. 1 to ankle-deep water in the home. He used heavy blankets as makeshift sandbags to try to stop the water from getting in.<\/p>\n
Following the 2024 floods, the city\u2019s stormwater department says it reassigned staff to help crews keep up with maintaining the roughly 18 miles of channels that it cleared \u2014 including 12 miles of channels in the Chollas Creek watershed.<\/p>\n
In the fiscal year that ended in June, the department cleared 18,000 tons of sediment and vegetation from the city\u2019s stormwater system, according to the city\u2019s annual waterways maintenance report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, more than 2,300 stormwater maintenance requests were filed with the city\u2019s Get It Done app in the last year, ranging from concerns around damaged storm drain screens and corrugated metal storm drain pipes to vegetation overgrowth.<\/p>\n Keeping up with channel maintenance \u2014 and addressing the decades of backlogged maintenance \u2014 is a fiscal challenge for the city, with a funding shortfall of more than $6.5 billion for infrastructure needs over the next five years as of early last year. The largest chunk of that deficit by far is for stormwater needs, at nearly $4 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s stormwater department has an annual budget of nearly $65 million<\/a> for the current fiscal year. That\u2019s up from about $63 million the year prior but down from nearly $71 million in fiscal 2024.<\/p>\n The department has ambitious plans for several stormwater capital improvement projects, including 26 ongoing and future projects<\/a> in the Chollas Creek Watershed. But several projects are unfunded, including a citywide flood resilience infrastructure project and another one to restore Chollas Creek at 54th Street and Euclid Avenue in Oak Park.<\/p>\n \u201cThe city continues to pursue long-term funding strategies for major stormwater and flood resilience projects,\u201d the Mayor\u2019s Office said. It added that those initiatives rely on multi-year planning and funding, such as from federal and state grants, not one-time contingency funding.<\/p>\n One project \u2014 which would improve the Beta Street Channel, the Beta Alley and Southcrest Trails Park with an estimated cost of over $100 million \u2014 is slated to get more than $1 million in federal funding, part of more than $4 million allocated for the city of San Diego this fiscal year to support four critical stormwater capital projects.<\/p>\n Another funding source for the department comes from a $733 million federal loan, for which the city has to match funds.<\/p>\n One funding source that isn\u2019t available to the city is a dedicated tax. In 2024, city leaders explored a parcel tax to fund stormwater infrastructure but later dropped the effort<\/a>, citing difficulty getting the two-thirds support it would need to pass.<\/p>\n In the meantime, the city has focused on clearing and maintaining critical channel sections, including those that\u00a0flooded in 2024 \u2014 but 45 of its 110 waterway segments<\/a> and infrastructure haven\u2019t been maintained since before 2011.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-flood-update-4.jpg\")
A storm drain after heavy rains caused flooding near Birch and Una Streets in Southcrest on Jan. 23, 2024, in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-flood-update-6.jpg\")
On Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in San Diego, residents of Beta Street begin the cleanup from flooding. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n