NATIONAL CITY, Calif. (KGTV) – Thursday marks one month since the historic Jan. 22 floods tore through many parts of San Diego County, including in National City.
ABC 10News followed through with one family it spoke to the day after the storm destroyed their home.
“We love our home but [we’re] afraid to rebuild it and I’m afraid to stay here right now. Everything was fine until the city came along and put that grate in,” said National City homeowner Sherry Gogue.
A month after the devastating flooding, many residents are still seeing flashbacks of their homes underwater. Many of the victims, like Clyde Thompson, told 10News they're dealing with health issues.
Thompson was stuck in contaminated, flood waters for about two hours, and he said “I ended up getting a bacterial infection in my right eye and pink eye, and then I got pneumonia in my chest, as well."
This week, Thompson’s mother, Sherry Gogue, showed 10News the progress she's made in the last month. There's a new foundation, flooring, and wall frames in place.
However, the rebuilding has not been without its challenges. According to Gogue, scammers, looters, and squatters have tried taking advantage of their already vulnerable situation.
“They pulled in and said, ‘Hey, we're here to pick up stuff.’ They were trying to take whatever we had left, which is next to nothing,” Gogue said.
Gogue said it will take another 8 to 10 months to finish repairs to the home.
She and her husband are exhausted with doing damage control for a second time in one year, as their house was damaged by flooding from storm a that came on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2023.
Gogue said a grate the city installed in the water basin she lives next to is the root cause of the flooding to her home.
Gogue shared pictures of the grate, clogged with debris, causing flood waters to build up and spill out onto East 8th St. where she and four other homeowners live.
“If they don't fix that, if the city doesn't repair this fiasco that they built in our neighborhood; we can't do this every year,” Gogue said.
At a Feb. 6 National City council meeting, Gogue spoke about the flooding issue and pleaded with the councilmembers.
"We almost lost my husband that day. I'm asking you from my heart today, get rid of that grate,” she told the council.
ABC 10News reached out to National City Manager Ben Martinez to find out if the city has any future plans for the grate.
Brian Hadley, Director of Community Development, sent the following response:
In regards to inquiry, the following is a statement from our public works department: “We are currently evaluating our entire drainage system, including operations of grates before, during and after storm events. City Public Works has been keeping the grate at 3600 block of E. 8th St near Paradise Valley Rd open during the most recent rain events until a final decision is made in the coming months. I did confirm with our PW crews that the grate was open during the Jan. 22nd natural disaster, proving 4 feet of clearance between the bottom of the grate and the bottom of the channel. The debris from north of National City still managed to get clogged in the culvert.”
