Time and time again, San Diego proves itself woefully underprepared for rainstorms. The issues with the city’s stormwater system have been endlessly prodded, but nothing seems to change. Just this month, rainstorms prompted a flood watch alert for the city and several flash floods across the county. In January 2024, floods resulting from the “thousand-year storm” displaced residents and devastated homes. It’s up to San Diego leadership to take a more proactive stance on funding the stormwater infrastructure and educate voters on its importance, especially as the scale of storms increases year after year.
Roads around San Diego are prone to flooding due to the city’s poor stormwater infrastructure, which consists of pump stations, storm drain pipes, and open flood control channels — all maintained by the city’s Stormwater Department.
Not all flooding is due to the stormwater system’s shortcomings — heavy storms will cause some level of damage regardless of human effort — but the San Diego Stormwater Department is not adequately equipped to maintain its infrastructure at even the bare minimum level…