San Jose Water District Searching For Answers After Flood

Officials say recent flooding at Coyote Creek in San Jose, CA, resulted in $73 million in public and private property damage, according to the Associated Press.

“Last week, city officials ordered more than 14,000 residents to evacuate as water from swollen Coyote Creek flooded homes and temporarily shut down a portion of a major freeway,” the report said.

Could it all have been prevented? One former water official says yes, NBC Bay Area reported.

Sahib "Cy" Mann, a former director on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board, said inflatable dams could have kept the water from rushing toward homes. Mann says the district owns these dams.

"I don’t see anyone having a viable excuse for this," Mann said, per the report. "We had a deployment plan for this particular issue if there’s any kind of massive flooding."

"I'm shaking my head in disappointment because this whole thing could have been prevented," Mann said, per the report.

The district argued that inflatable dams would not have been “useful,” the report said. Officials said redirecting flows may have caused flooding on additional properties.

Additional claims from Mann, per the report:

He insists the floods were not a natural disaster but human-caused because they were triggered by a combination of the spillway release and weeks of a controlled release at Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill, with no coordination to respond to the consequences downstream.

Here’s how the water district responded, per the report:

The water district disputed the accusation, saying the flooding was a result of too much water in too little time. District officials said they will leave no stone unturned in reviewing and evaluating what was done this time and what could be done in the future to improve procedures.

San Jose residents are also questioning whether local officials should have done more to warn them about the flooding. A water district employee “tried to sound the alarm bell,” CBS Local reported. Critics say messages from the mayor’s office seemed to downplay the threat.

To read more about emergency response visit Water Online’s Resiliency Solutions Center.