Some roads and neighborhoods in San Francisco experienced minor flooding Friday as the Atmospheric River dumped heavy rain on the city.
Matthew Coric said he was in his restaurant when he suddenly saw water rising outside.
“The water was already pouring over the curb and Rainbow Grocery closed that day because they were flooding or starting to flood, and the next two restaurants already had water in their restaurant,” Coric said.
Two years ago, during another major storm, the entire block was flooded with several meters of water.
Coric told KPIX he was determined not to let that happen again, so he and some of his employees grabbed brooms and whatever they could get their hands on and ran toward the flood.
“These two drains here on opposite sides of the street, we literally couldn’t see them. This was above the curb. We were just blindly scraping to get it unclogged until we could see the little tornado start,” Coric said.
He said they were able to unclog the drain just in time to prevent the water from flooding his restaurant, and it took about 30 minutes for the water to completely recede.
While he’s glad they were able to prevent another crisis, he said he wishes the city had kept an eye on the area so he and his staff didn’t have to deal with it themselves.
“Two years ago it flooded, and last year the city was on high alert. They parked their trucks here and made sure nothing happened. But now that it’s been two years, they forgot about us again and the same thing happened,” said he. Corian.
He said that from now on, when it rains, he will keep an eye on the drains himself and intervene as soon as he sees them becoming clogged.
He advises others in areas prone to flooding to do the same.
“If you are on the street, someone is right, and you see the drain overflowing, then I know if you can wait for the city that is great, but it may not come. Just clean it yourself or find someone who can save it a lot of headaches for everyone,” Coric said.
