San Diego County Flooded as Rachel’s Record Threatening Tides Hit — And Nobody Can Stop It

San Diego County Flooded as Rachel’s Record-Threatening Tides Hit — And Nobody Can Stop It Tropical Storm Rachel arrived in San Diego County on top of a 7.5-foot high tide, over ocean water that hit 73 degrees at Scripps Pier, tying the hottest reading ever recorded there for October 9, and the result was flooding signs in Imperial Beach, a man trapped in a La Mesa culvert, and a near miss that exposed how exposed this coast really is. This video breaks down why San Diego floods in “layers,” from the high tide, El Niño’s higher sea level baseline, swell, onshore wind, and rain backing up storm drains, to why the Mission Beach boardwalk and Chollas Creek held this time. You’ll learn how the first-ever tropical storm warning for San Diego during Hurricane Hilary in 2023, the January 2024 Chollas Creek flood that displaced hundreds of residents, and the rare 1858 hurricane point to a pattern of warmer, wetter storms hitting a coast built on filled-in marshland and sandbars. We also cover why Imperial Beach, surrounded by the Pacific, San Diego Bay, and the sewage-polluted Tijuana River Estuary, may be the most vulnerable community in the region, why a near miss can be more dangerous than a direct hit, and why rising seas mean the same tide will reach farther inland each year. If you’ve been following Tropical Storm Rachel, San Diego coastal flooding, or king tide risk in Southern California, this is the full breakdown. Like, subscribe, and tell us in the comments: should San Diego spend billions on sea walls and drainage upgrades, or start planning for managed retreat in neighborhoods like Imperial Beach?