‘Out of an Apocalyptic Movie’: San Diego Residents Describe Flood Escape

They fled to rooftops. Deserted cars in the middle of raging waters. Grabbed kayaks to traverse flooded streets. Searched for neighbors and cried out to strangers.

The rare torrent of rain that slammed the San Diego area on Monday forced numerous residents to navigate life-threatening scenes that they had trouble believing even as they recounted them.

The authorities would later call it a miracle that no one died and very few people were injured in a suddenly calamitous storm that prompted state and local leaders to declare a state of emergency.

“What happened yesterday was extraordinary,” said Todd Gloria, the mayor of San Diego.

On Tuesday, officials assessed the devastation in a region where very few residents have flood insurance. The record pace of the rainfall — a deluge of nearly three inches in three hours — had quickly overwhelmed drainage systems. According to the National Weather Service, it was the fourth greatest total for any day in recorded San Diego history, going back to 1850.

Many residents face losses that feel more impossible than their harrowing escapes. Some wondered why government officials had not done more to warn residents or call on them to evacuate before they were surrounded by floodwaters. Others were still in disbelief that their belongings were destroyed in an instant.

“Electronics, clothes, pictures, memories, everything’s gone. I lost everything in that flood,” Luis Reyes said of the apartment that he shares with his family. “All my memories are gone.’”