{"id":498180,"date":"2026-10-16T15:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498180\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T15:30:12","slug":"staring-down-a-historic-el-nino-san-jose-says-its-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/498180\/","title":{"rendered":"Staring Down a Historic El Ni\u00f1o, San Jos\u00e9 Says It\u2019s Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan said the city is prepared if a potential storm comes its way, thanks to investments in disaster preparedness. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Coyote Creek flows past the Olinder-McKinley neighborhood in San Jos\u00e9, California, on Feb. 20, 2025. After a 2017 flood that displaced thousands and caused millions in damage, the city is focusing on emergency preparedness as El Ni\u00f1o approaches.
\n\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9<\/a> is ramping up preparations for what forecasters warn could be a \u201cvery strong\u201d El Ni\u00f1o, in an effort to avoid another major flood \u2014 like the one that prompted mass evacuations almost a decade ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The city has increased communication with the Santa Clara Valley Water District since learning what Mayor Matt Mahan called \u201chard lessons\u201d after the 2017 Coyote Creek flood<\/a> \u2014 which displaced thousands and prompted the city to grade itself an \u2018F\u2019 in emergency preparedness.<\/p>\n

City staff is monitoring dozens of historical flooding sites, with the Transportation Department holding a storm coordination meeting to review emergency response procedures \u2014 upgraded public safety measures thanks to the passage of the 2018 bond measure.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan speaks during a July 25, 2025, press conference in North San Jos\u00e9.
\u00a0(Joseph Geha\/KQED)<\/p>\n

All of that information could come in handy \u2014 El Ni\u00f1o-driven flooding, mudslides, power outages and more have been predicted, as the natural climate pattern continues to strengthen<\/a> with impacts across the California coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel we\u2019re prepared,\u201d Mahan told KQED on Thursday. \u201cWe keep getting better \u2014 we\u2019re investing more in infrastructure, technology, our coordination with Valley Water and continuing to educate our community to make sure individuals are prepared and paying attention and in a position to be resilient as we have extreme weather.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Climate Protection Center, an arm of the National Weather Service, said<\/a> earlier this month that El Ni\u00f1o has continued to intensify, and chances \u201cremain high\u201d that it could be stronger than any the world has seen since 1950. From October through December, CPC said there\u2019s an 83% chance for a historic event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that flooding has been minimal compared to the Coyote Creek flood, which forced 14,000 to evacuate and incurred around $100 million in damages. Residents filed a lawsuit after the fact because they said that they weren\u2019t properly notified in advance about emergency preparedness, and that the dam that flooded wasn\u2019t adequately maintained. The parties settled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Efforts for El Ni\u00f1o, he said, do include a focus on locations where flooding has happened historically, though citywide prevention is also a priority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Coyote Creek as seen from Berryessa Rd. in San Jos\u00e9 on Sept. 6, 2023.\u00a0(Martin do Nascimento\/KQED)<\/p>\n

Valley Water has also increased preparedness. The agency completed over 8,000 feet of flood walls along Coyote Creek and was recently awarded a $100 million contract for the next phase of flood protection improvement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are steadily investing in the waterways that they oversee and reducing flood risk,\u201d Mahan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The mayor said the City Council will receive an update on the highest-risk flooding locations in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 Mayor Matt Mahan said the city is prepared if a potential storm comes its way, thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-498180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}