SAN JOSE — When the last big December storm was at its peak, overflowing storm drains and flash-flooding streets gave San Jose’s bayside community of Alviso an all-too-real reminder that if not for the levees and pumps, they’d be underwater.
Longtime residents have compared their hamlet to a micro-New Orleans, a diked-in village of 2,100 that’s been dodging disaster for decades. They recall the El Niño season of 1983 that saw Coyote Creek breach its banks and immerse sub-sea-level homes and businesses 8 feet under. Since then, there’s been a host of flood controls that have kept another megaflood at bay. But there’s fear among residents that with a really big downpour they’d still be sunk, and they say the city has long lagged in helping them sleep soundly.
“Damn straight, it was a wake-up call,” said Norm Colby, a longtime Alvisan who, during the storm’s apex, went out in hip-waders to clear out drains topped by 2 feet of water. “There’s no excuse — there was plenty of time to prepare for it. They know there’s a big storm coming. They see it on the news, but they wait until that day to do anything.”
Alviso is the lowest point in the Bay Area — sections dip to 13 feet below sea level — and boaters going to launch at the marina actually drive up an incline to get to the ramp. As such, it’s naturally susceptible to the sort of flooding that requires more than just galoshes and puddle-jumping.
For some in the low-lying area around Gold and North Taylor streets, the last big downpour on Dec. 11 — which at its strongest dropped about .8 of an inch on Alviso in an hour — had murky waters creeping up concrete steps and seeping into car cabins, though no one had it actually intrude into their home.
San Jose Public Works Director David Sykes said the pumps at the Gold Street station, a quartet of devices that automatically activate sequentially as water in a “trigger well” rises, did not malfunction but were overwhelmed.
“We rely on pumps to move water over the levee and into the marina,” he said, “but the intensity of the storm, particularly between 9 and 11, was just so much that the pumps couldn’t keep up.”
He said the area typically is drained by gravity, which is supplemented by the pumps when storms overrun that system. But as was demonstrated, it’s just not enough to beat back a “Pineapple Express” at full steam.
Mark Strudley, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service, said that at its peak the deluge was a 25-year event.
“Even a couple tenths of an inch in an hour is considered in general parlance to be a heavy rain,” he said. “If you get toward an inch an hour, that’s a lot coming down at once.”
Emergency crews were sent to the area around 11:15 a.m., knocking on doors to tell residents that there was “moderate flooding” in the streets but not asking anyone to evacuate — yet. With city pump trucks joining community members who got their own emergency pump running, the waters receded as rains weakened, and the end result was frantic last-minute sandbagging and some closed businesses, but no major damage.
A week later, old-timers at Vahl’s Restaurant in the epicenter of the flood zone joked that anyone surprised by the inundated streets and parking lots hasn’t been an Alvisan for long. Bartender Frank Rebozzi cracked that it might have sent some out-of-town lunchers elsewhere but of course they stayed open — “my regulars aren’t scared of a puddle, and the drinkers will always find a way through.”
But beneath the mirth runs a river of concern. And Richard Santos, a longtime Alviso advocate who sits on the Santa Clara Valley Water District board, said there’s good reason for that. He laid blame squarely on the city.
“They say they prepare, but they’re never prepared,” said Santos, who, when queried by this newspaper two days before the storm, said he expected such problems because he’s seen them in the past.
“It’s the same story every year,” he said. “It wasn’t a 25-year event two years ago when we saw the same thing. They needed more pumps but didn’t do it. They needed to plan ahead and didn’t do it. Then they’re caught with their pants down and call it an ‘act of God.’ “
San Jose has budgeted about $9 million to bolster the current pumping system, Sykes said, and a community meeting in Alviso is scheduled for next month to go over the options.
“We’ve known that the current pumping capacity has its limitations,” Sykes said.
He likened it to a roadway that was built for normal use but not rush hour, but added that the safety of Alviso residents is something the city takes extremely seriously.
“We shifted money from another project to make this a priority,” he said. “I would say the Alviso pump station is our top storm project.”
It’s still in early planning stages, and Sykes did not have a timeline for completion. However, he said the city’s department of transportation will have pump trucks at the ready in the event that another potentially messy deluge looms.
But Santos said they’ve been burned too many times before, and called the lack of adequate permanent pumps another example of the city’s seeming reluctance to properly serve a largely Hispanic and working-class part of San Jose that has long felt neglected. Since it was annexed in 1968 in a tight and still-contentious vote, Alvisans have said the city has been consistently slow to provide promised improvements and treats the area unfairly compared to wealthier neighborhoods.
“They’ve had 47 years to get more pumps,” he said. “Of course I’m skeptical — why would I think they have a magic wand this time that’s going to make it happen? We’ve been conditioned so that we expect to be treated unfairly. … This wouldn’t happen in Willow Glen.”
Contact Eric Kurhi at 408-920-5852. Follow him at Twitter.com/erickurhi.
FLOOD CONTROL MEETING
What: Alviso and Lower Guadalupe Collaborative meeting on future flood protection improvements.
When: 6:30 p.m. Jan. 14
Where: Alviso Branch Library conference room, 5050 N. First St., San Jose
