Crews Prepare for Next El Nino Storm

Now that the first major El Nino storm was moved of San Diego, City and County crews are cleaning up and seeing what they could do better next time.

The County’s automatic flood system alert system runs by 120 sensors throughout the County tells flood control when and where to send emergency crews.

County experts say San Diego will continue to experience floods and the Weather Center is an integral part of protecting residents and property during El Nino.

One big concern moving forward through this El Nino season is now that the ground is soaked and the soil has absorbed a lot of water, the next storms that move through could have a bigger impact and be even more destructive.

County manager Sara Agahi said the County prepared well over the summer, but there was one aspect of this week’s storms that surprised her: the tornado warning.

“That is a very rare and unexpected occurrence,” Agahi told NBC 7. “Having said that, who knows, I would normally not expect to see that at all in San Diego, but I have no way to predict that. I don’t know and neither does the National Weather Service. But we monitor and we see the conditions real time.”

One lesson the County did want to stress is that a lot of drainage pipes and channels are on private property, and now is the time to figure out if you have drains on your land and make sure they’re cleared up.