San Mateo residents prepping for more rain, still cleaning up flood damage

Gosha Kuratzyk of Concord said Saturday night’s howling winds had her dogs barking nonstop, and sent trees toppling over in her neighborhood.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Santa Clara County has issued an emergency evacuation warning for some areas ahead of the storm moving in the following days. Meanwhile, some residents in San Mateo say they're still cleaning up after flooding from last week.

There are a few spots in Santa Clara County that officials say could flood and in San Mateo, some people say they’re bracing themselves for more potential flooding.

Josue Samayoa has been living on 16th Ave for 10 years and says he’s doing all he can to get ready for the next round of storms.

"…I’ve set up a lot of sandbags throughout my property where I know water was coming in Saturday and trying as best I can to prepare…all of this is going to be irrelevant if the city doesn’t do its job to clear the water in the main drainage holes," Samayoa said.

Other neighbors on 16th told us they were also disappointed by San Mateo’s response to the storm and the issues it left behind. The City of San Mateo released this statement, saying in part:

"The City was preparing in advance as best we could with the information available, by clearing storm water catch basins, storm drains and trash racks throughout the city, and bringing in crews to assist. Our dispatch received 1,300 calls for service, and we responded to as many as we possibly could."

Dean White says he's lived on 16th since 2004. He says he's never experienced flooding like this before and was completely unprepared for it.

"The creek, it came up to street level and came over onto Delaware. It was amazing to see. It looked like a lake," White said.

"…before we could get to the end like halfway, we had to stop. Boots filled with water," said Nolan White, Dean's son.

In Santa Clara County, a warning was also issued on Sunday, asking people to be prepared to evacuate. In San Jose, those areas include Guadalupe River at Alma Avenue, Ross Creek at Cherry Ave, and areas near Upper Penitencia Creek.

San Mateo’s mayor also told us that they’ve launched a flood relief fund, and he supports a full and transparent analysis of their response when the storms are finally over.

If you need more information about storm prep, you can visit Santa Clara County or San Mateo County’s websites.