Southcrest flood victims worry that dry, overgrown brush will lead to fires

SAN DIEGO, (KGTV) - People who lost their homes during the January flooding in the Southcrest area of San Diego now worry dry brush and overgrown weeds will lead to fires.

Katherine LeMoine has been living on her property on Beta Street since her motel voucher expired last month.

"We just pretend like we're camping. We just pretend like it's not in Southcrest, that we're in the mountains," said LeMoine.

LeMoine and her family of six have been eating, sleeping, and showering outside.

"This is where we were taking showers before the bathroom got done, cold showers, I should say," said LeMoine.

Her home of over forty years is one of hundreds that flooded during the January storms.

"You can call it my, "she shed," Come on, you gotta think positive," said LeMoine, pointing to the makeshift bedroom she has set up in a shed.

LeMoine can be positive now that the repairs to her home are almost complete, but another flood isn't her only worry.

"Look at it; it's a jungle now," said LeMoine.

What she calls a jungle is Southcrest Trails Park. When the canal flooded in January, debris rushed into nearby homes. The city says it conducted emergency maintenance on roughly 12 miles of channels in the Chollas Creek watershed, but nearby residents say maintaining it has been a problem for years.

"You can tell people have been living down here; see, look at how overgrown it is," said Lemoine.

A spokesperson with the City of San Diego sent 10News the following statement:

A plan is in place to conduct repeat maintenance on the channels that were cleared following the storm emergency. The channel at Alpha and 38th St. is part of that repeat maintenance. Crews are currently performing maintenance on Chollas Creek in the Encanto area and plan to be in the Southcrest community to remove invasive vegetation within the next few weeks.

The City conducted emergency maintenance on about 12 miles of channels in the Chollas Creek watershed following the emergency declaration in response to the historic Jan. 22 storm. Mayor Todd Gloria has included funding in the Stormwater Department budget in Fiscal Year 2025 to continue maintaining those channels at the same level ahead of the next rainy season.