Like most California residents, Elizabeth Zdradzinski of Stockton woke up Saturday morning to heavy rainfall from a winter storm sweeping across the state.
While Zdradzinski expected the rain, she didn’t expect the phone call she received from her neighbor.
“The person who lives across the street called me and asked for help to clear out the dogs in his house because the water was rising in his house and he was like, ‘The water’s about to get in here,'” Zdradzinski said.
Zdradzinski, a longtime resident of the Victory Park neighborhood, jumps into action. She secured her neighbor’s pets in her home, which she said was luckily built on higher ground than the other houses in her neighborhood.
Zdradzinski said city crews were able to go out to assess her neighbor’s home and other houses in the area, but they were told, “There’s nothing that can be done about it right now.”
The National Weather Service reported Stockton has received 5.65 inches of rain in December through Friday.
The rain total is more than double for what Stockton is used to receiving.
Stockton averages 2.1 inches of rain in December, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Hannah Chandler-Cooley.
Chandler-Cooley said another rainstorm for Stockton is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. Between 1 and 2 inches of rain are expected to fall next week.
The situation is especially frustrating for Zdradzinski because it is not the first time her neighborhood has flooded. She said her neighborhood also experienced flooding in October 2021, and homeowners were left to foot the bill for drainage system repairs.
“It makes me feel disappointed,” Zdradzinski said. “This is Victory Park. It’s a nice neighborhood. If this is happening in our neighborhood, it has to be happening in other parts of town. What is the city doing for the homeowners if they’re not even able to fix what would seem be a simple issue of drainage and water runoff?”
Other parts of the city experienced flooding. Early Saturday morning, the Stockton Police Department issued a street flooding alert after the Hammer Lane underpass at the railroad tracks east of Lorraine Avenue became undriveable.
As of 2 pm Saturday, the city of Stockton announced street closures at:
- March Lane and Claremont Avenue
- Bianchi Road and El Dorado Avenue
- Robinhood Drive between Pacific Avenue and Claremont Avenue
- Westbound Trinity Parkway and Eight Mile Road
- Trinity Parkway between Walmart and Cosumnes Drive
The flood advisory in San Joaquin County is in effect until 10 pm Saturday. The flood watch issued by the National Weather Service in Sacramento expires at 4 am Sunday.
Redding Record Searchlight/USA TODAY Network reporter Ethan Hanson contributed to this report.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
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