San Diego, California – Chaos struck downtown San Diego yet again as torrential rain hammered the city, drenching the area with two inches on New Year’s Day—a downpour so intense it shattered local rainfall records. The deluge triggered frantic water rescues and forced officials to rush 325 homeless individuals out of the Bridge shelter, a sprawling gray tent, as floodwaters surged inside. Residents, many with nowhere else to turn, were moved hastily to a nearby park gym, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported—a desperate scramble to find safety as the waters kept rising.
This marks the third dramatic evacuation in seven years for the Bridge shelter, a facility already notorious for hit after hit from Mother Nature. The last times? In 2018 and 2020, the same nightmare unfolded. This latest weather disaster comes after a brutal year for California, with relentless storms pounding the region and Governor Gavin Newsom already declaring a state of emergency as battered communities brace themselves for yet more rain on the horizon.
Meanwhile, the scars of past wildfires haven’t healed. Fresh warnings arrived from the Los Angeles fire department, urging people near recently burned zones to get out before debris flows and flash flooding struck again. According to the National Weather Service, anyone living near a burn scar could face life-threatening floods in an instant…