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Above: FOX 5’s Kasia Gregorczyk on flooding in San Diego’s Southcrest neighborhood.
SAN DIEGO — California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in San Diego County on Tuesday to aid recovery efforts following massive flooding from a winter storm.
The proclamation directed the state Office of Emergency Services to provide assistance to local governments in San Diego and Ventura counties, both of whom were devastated by the storm.
According to the order, this includes opening up fairgrounds to shelter displaced residents, short-term changes to provide unemployment benefits for impacted residents, and the temporary waiving of fees to replace records like driver’s licenses and birth certificates.
The proclamation follows similar declarations by elected officials in San Diego County Monday evening due to the extreme flash flooding.
First responders had to rescue hundreds of people stranded in their homes and cars throughout the day on Monday, as floodwaters surged to multiple feet in height in some places.
Areas of southeastern San Diego, South Bay and near the Tijuana River Valley were hit particularly hard by the storm, with nearly four inches of rain falling in those areas within a matter of hours as the storm’s core moved directly overhead.
About 2.73 inches of rainfall was recorded through midnight at sites in the City of San Diego, passing the previous record for the wettest January day by 0.2 inches. According to the National Weather Service, it came in fourth to the wettest day on record for the city.
On Tuesday, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria toured the aftermath of the extreme flooding in San Diego alongside fire officials.
“We knew it was going to rain, but no one told us that we were going to get four inches of rain right here in Point Loma,” Gloria told FOX 5 during his tour. “What that did was overwhelm our city’s stormwater drainage system to the point where we see an extraordinary amount of flooding all across the city, but particularly impacted our southeastern communities that today are now cleaning out and cleaning out for many days to come.”
“This is a disaster … Some of these people will lose their homes over this and this is very tragic and we have to do everything we possibly can to support them,” he continued. “When you see a magnitude of this impact, the unprecedented nature of this disaster, we need the additional help.”
Gloria is set to join the city’s leadership team at 1:30 p.m. to discuss next steps for supporting the recovery efforts.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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