© Noah Berger / AFP/Getty Images
Floodwater surrounds homes in San Jose on Wednesday. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes as neighborhoods were inundated.
Floodwater surrounds homes in San Jose on Wednesday. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes as neighborhoods were inundated.
That happened over the weekend, sending massive amounts of water into the Coyote Creek, which runs through the heart of San Jose.
By Tuesday, the creek was overflowing at numerous locations, inundating neighborhoods, flooding hundreds of homes and forcing the frantic evacuations of more than 14,000 residents, who remained out of their homes Wednesday.
The worst flooding to hit Silicon Valley in a century left San Jose reeling and residents angry about why they were not given more warning that a disaster was imminent. Even city officials on Wednesday conceded they were caught off guard by the severity of the flooding and vowed a full investigation into what went wrong.
"If the first time a resident is aware that they need to get out of a home is when they see a firefighter in a boat, then clearly there has been a failure," said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. "There is no question that we'll need to do things differently next time."
Comment: Record rainfall is straining California's whole flood control network. Yesterday the gates at Shasta Dam were opened for the first time in 19 years to ensure they worked properly. The event has happened only twice in 34 years - in 1998 and 1983. Don Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the dam said, "If this next series of storms comes through, then we very may well need to use them."