About two years ago, I lost everything.
It was my son’s eighth birthday when a historic flood tore through our San Diego home, destroying everything we owned. He was at school when it happened. On my way to pick him up, I cried, wondering how I would tell him that our pets were gone — that everything was gone.
I held it together that night so he could celebrate. The next day, I told him the truth: on Jan. 22, 2024, a catastrophic storm combined with a failure of the city’s stormwater infrastructure submerged our Southcrest home under six feet of toxic floodwater. The water rose so fast that entire street blocks were destroyed before families could evacuate. We had no warning.
I still remember the smell of mud, sewage and trash and the fear that day. Neighbors were trapped for hours in their homes, watching the water rise up from their children’s ankles to their necks until their feet could no longer touch the floor. Families clung to walls, curtains and ceilings as electricity surged through the floodwaters. Mothers floated babies in whatever they could find — pots and trash cans — in the floodwaters, praying help would come.
But the help didn’t arrive in time. Emergency lines rang busy for hours. More than 1,500 homes across the county were destroyed, the majority of them within the city of San Diego. Residents had to find their own ways to survive and save each other.
Two years later, many of us are still rebuilding, working hard to recover generations of work and care lost in a day. Fewer than half of flood survivors were able to access city housing assistance and reconstruction programs due to limited funding and restrictive requirements. For many of those affected, recovery has been slow, incomplete and out of reach.
The truth is that the damage was so immense, and my understanding is that it was all preventable.
Over $100 million was spent responding to the flood disaster, money that could have been invested in stormwater infrastructure. Instead, we know now the risks were ignored. The flood channels were overgrown due to the lack of maintenance. The channels had been flagged as “catastrophe imminent.” Residents urged the city to repair and clean the flood channels, but they were ignored. This same community was flooded by a foot of water in 2018. Still, maintenance did not happen.
San Diego is not alone in experiencing catastrophic extreme weather disasters, and many are often hit hardest due to neglected infrastructure. We cannot afford another climate disaster in this city — the human cost is too high. Human lives were lost, along with pets, wildlife and plants in the area surrounding Chollas Creek flood channels.
Today, all of the recovery work and reconstruction of homes is now at risk of flooding again because the flood channels have not received the investment needed to bring them up to date. Flood survivors have yet to receive all the support needed to live, recover and heal. What they have received has been because we spoke up. It’s time to do so again.
Right now, the city is deciding how it will allocate funding for the coming year, including investment in stormwater infrastructure and its maintenance. The budget process determines whether communities are protected and whether disasters are prevented or repeated, like the tragedy my family and many more San Diegan families experienced. The people of San Diego deserve true investment that prioritizes the dignity well-being, and resiliency of our communities.
This is why public participation in our local budget process matters.
When residents show up and speak, we have the power to influence how the city budget is allocated. San Diegans have seen firsthand the devastating impacts of failed stormwater infrastructure in a rapidly changing climate. None of us can afford another disaster. Not the city, not the city council and its departments, and especially not us, the survivors.
San Diego is at risk. If divestment from funding safety, public health and the protection of our communities continues, we will all suffer the consequences of failing to prevent another disaster, and the number of residents in recovery will begin to outnumber those who are not.
The city of San Diego and its leaders can do better for its residents by investing in our futures and communities now. Join me in calling on city hall to do right by us. Speak out. We need a budget that invests $100 million in stormwater infrastructure and reflects the real needs of our communities.
The January 2024 flood wasn’t a one-off storm, nor did it impact only one neighborhood. This is about all of us, and whether we choose to learn from the past or repeat it.
Our lives cannot wait.
Jessica Calix is a San Diego resident whose home in Southcrest was destroyed in the 2024 flood.
