All 10 of the San Diego Community College District’s campuses sustained water damage due to the major winter storm Jan. 19 to 22 that generated historic rainfall totals, officials said Monday.
The storm overwhelmed storm drains and caused flash flooding across San Diego County. The most significant impacts within the SDCCD, which includes San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar, and Continuing Education colleges, occurred on the campuses of San Diego College of Continuing Education. The damage consists of major flooding of classrooms, hallways, and parking structures along with damage to walls and other infrastructure.
A complete damage assessment is underway by the district, and staff are working to ensure all campuses are open when spring semester classes begin the week of Jan. 29.
Examples of damage to the campuses include:
SDCCE César E. Chávez Campus in Barrio Logan
- The bottom floors of parking structure were completely flooded
- Elevator is inoperable as is one of the stairwells
- Computer lab floor and walls were flooded, with all computers and monitors a total loss
SDCCE Education Cultural Campus in Mountain View
- Flooding in the foyer, student services and lounge area, welding space, culinary arts area, and several classrooms
SDCCE Mid City Campus in City Heights
- Several ceiling cave-ins/leaks
SDCCE at Mesa College in Linda Vista
- Flooding in multiple hallways and classrooms
San Diego Miramar College
- Several large roof leaks and hallway flooding across the campus
- Some water intrusion on window ledges and classroom flooring
- Two areas of significant pooling water outside of buildings
San Diego City College
- Several ceiling leaks throughout the campus
- Flooding in the bookstore and adjacent areas
- Water seeping in from outside walls in several areas
San Diego Mesa College
- Multiple roof, hallway, and classroom leaks
- Flooding in one of the men’s restrooms and locker room
- Flooding in one of the women’s restrooms
The SDCCD serves approximately 80,000 students, including 20,000 students at SDCCE many are immigrants from low-income communities. Some of these students don’t have access to online education at home and the storm not only impacted their campuses, but also their homes.
Classes are scheduled to resume for the upcoming semester on Jan. 29 at the credit colleges and Jan. 31 for SDCCE. Despite continuing repairs, district officials say they will be ready to serve all enrolled students. SDCCE was able to move many classes online through Hyflex which allowed students to attend their classes online during the in-person closures.