Community gets taste of El Niño
Last week’s El Niño-driven storms dumped approximately 5 inches of rain on Ramona, causing temporary closure of several streets and flooding yards and homes in some areas.
According to the National Weather Service, between Tuesday and 8 p.m. Thursday, Ramona had received 5.43 inches, San Diego Country Estates 4.84 inches, Julian 5.88 inches, and Mt. Woodson 7.46 inches of rain.
Most Ramonans awoke to booms of thunder as storms bringing torrential rain, wind and hail rolled through the community between 3:30 and 4 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7.
For 1,325 San Diego Gas & Electric customers in East Ramona, San Diego Country Estates and Barona, a power outage followed the lightning, thunder and pounding rain within minutes. The power remained out until shortly before 7 Thursday morning, reported SDG&E.
Around 1:30 that morning, Les Brennan said a bolt of lightning struck a pepper tree in his yard on Griffith Road, causing a huge branch to come crashing down behind his house.
“I heard that crack,” he said. “It rattled the house. And then the lights flickered and they went out.”
He had recently trimmed the large pepper tree.
“It was the largest branch left and now it’s gone,” he said, showing the black scorch marks where the branch had been ripped away by the lightning bolt.
Among reported road closures between Wednesday and Thursday were Ramona Street from Raymond Avenue to H Street; Etcheverry Road at both sides of San Diego Avenue; Magnolia at Highway 78 and 500 feet north of the Magnolia dip; and B Street at 10th and 11th streets.
Also closed was Hunter Street between Raymond and Kelly avenues because a virtual river flowed through backyards on Kelly and spilled into and across Hunter Street, where it was ponding on Dean Budd’s parcel and attracting waterfowl.
It was not a new scenario for Budd and his neighbors. Five years ago, in 2011, many of the residents in that area appealed to the Ramona Community Planning Group for help to remedy the flood problems, which led to a meeting with county flood control. However, Budd said the only change he has seen since then is the addition of county signs saying the streets are prone to flooding.
He and others said flooding has become worse over the years as commercial buildings and paved parking lots have been constructed on Main Street, west of Ramona Street.
“It’s gotten worse and worse,” said Iris Kilpatrick, who lives in the 2100 block of Kelly Street and had water up to the exterior back wall of her house Wednesday night.
Budd said a problem is that stormwater in two fairly large culverts converge and run under the street to a small culvert. As the water gets high and builds up, it starts to overflow, he said.
A neighbor, who declined to give his name, said they also get debris and garbage from the vacant lots on state Route 67 and have to remove that so the channels won’t clog.
“It’s been pretty much a constant headache for all the neighbors here,” he said.
When Elliott Pond on Ramona Street overflows, Kilpatrick said that water makes its way down to their yards. Not only do they get the pond water, but also tadpoles and fish, she said.
“It’s strange,” she added.
In San Diego Country Estates, Mario Trejo, general manager of the Estates homeowners association, said, “We are saturated.”
“The wind has been pushing the water every which way,” he said last week.
Trejo said last Thursday that the Estates did not have as many major catastrophes as in the July 2015 rainstorms when about 100 homes flooded, but there were about a dozen homes that reported flooding with this recent system.
Rutherford Road in the Estates was one street that had been heavily impacted in July when water, mud, silt and rocks flowed down from the hillside and over a service road that runs behind homes. According to the county, Department of Public Works trucks were out on Rutherford last week, removing sediment from the street to prevent drains from clogging.
“”They have been working day and night,” said Trejo.
Efforts by the Estates HOA are underway to help prevent future flooding in that area.
At the San Vicente Resort offices, Trejo said they had some roof leaks and a power surge created some equipment failures. Power went out at 4 a.m. Thursday and was out for two hours, he said.
San Vicente Golf Course had to replace the bridge on hole No. 13 when it was washed out in the July rainstorm. The new bridge, Trejo said “held up fantastic this time.” Drain work at the San Vicente Lodge that had been implemented after last July also proved successful, he added.