When storms hit Coronado in 2024, Linda Charles watched water flood her yard and the street outside her home on Pomona Avenue and stay there.
“The water doesn’t go away,” Charles told the City Council on Oct. 20, as she spoke in favor of a declaration of emergency ahead of what forecasters say could be the strongest El Niño since the 1950s.
States of emergency, which the council approved unanimously, are passed by governing bodies when they need to act quickly. For example, after the January 2024 storm that brought flooding to the city, Coronado passed such a declaration. Doing so allowed the city to waive certain requirements in building the Parker Pump Station bypass. The project was completed in days, when it usually would have taken months.
The 2026 declaration similarly would allow the city move faster on purchasing, emergency repairs, and mutual aid requests, and opens the door to state and federal reimbursement for storm-related costs.
A long season ahead
City Manager Tina Friend told the council that El Niño conditions are expected to persist through spring 2027. Forecasters predict a strong to very strong event, peaking January through March, with a greater than 83 percent chance of severe effects during that window.
Friend said Coronado’s geography makes the city especially vulnerable. The city sits at roughly sea level, is surrounded by water, and relies on a gravity-fed storm drain system. When sea levels rise above the outfall pipes, water backs up into the streets. A series of Kelvin waves, deep ocean waves tied to El Niño, is expected to raise local sea levels by half a foot to a foot. Friend said city staff are already adding that amount to tide chart projections when planning.
Combined with possible storm surge, high surf, and heavy rainfall, Friend called the conditions potentially “a once-in-a-lifetime” event for the city. Potential impacts identified by staff include localized and coastal flooding, overwhelmed storm drains, water intrusion into homes and businesses, beach erosion, and interruptions to electrical, communication, water, sewer, and transportation systems.
She joked that much of the city’s residents have become amateur meteorologists as they await the storm season and said the city is in kind trying to prepare.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a statewide state of emergency over El Niño conditions on Sept. 21. San Diego County followed with a local emergency declaration on Sept. 30. Both actions provide tools Coronado can use, including expedited state permitting and California Coastal Commission (CCC) review. The city’s resolution unlocks further prophylactic measures.
Under the resolution, the council finds that conditions of extreme peril to people and property have arisen in the city due to El Niño. The declaration authorizes staff to install temporary flood mitigation measures, make emergency repairs to damaged infrastructure, procure supplies and personnel, and seek necessary permits and waivers on an expedited basis. Once the declaration takes effect, the city will begin tracking staff time and expenses for possible reimbursement, which Friend said the city has received after past emergency declarations.
The council must review the declaration every 60 days and vote on whether to continue it.
Residents push for more
When the storms in January 2024 caused widespread flooding in the city, Coronado was midway through construction on its Parker Pump Station. The deluge of rain came just after contractors poured concrete, further delaying an already behind-schedule project. It was finally completed in August 2026.
The incident is illustrative of the city’s push to build more pump stations as a part of its planned capital improvement projects. Friend said that much of the city’s stormwater system relies on gravity, and that more pump stations are planned in the future.
In the meantime, those gravity-fed lines don’t work when they’re clogged. Resident Rebecca King suggested that the city post signs telling residents to move their signs ahead of street sweeping, as it did during recent repaving. She said parked cars block crews from clearing curbs where pine needles and debris collect and clog storm drains.
Charles, who spoke about the impact of the 2024 storms on Pomona Avenue, suggested the police close the road during flooding, saying drivers speed through standing water. She said it took several days for the city to clear pine needles from her street after the last major storm, after she contacted the city directly.
Councilmember Mark Fleming moved to approve the resolution. Mayor John Duncan said the city is exploring more ways to address flooding in its gravity-fed drains. He pointed to recent steps, including acquiring vacuum trucks and closing streets such as Five Points during a previous storm.
“There’s more to be done,” Duncan said. “We are not in a perfect state yet.”
Councilmember Carrie Downey urged residents in flood-prone areas to organize block by block, as neighbors did with block captains during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to keep gutters clear in front of their homes. “
The city will do everything that we possibly can,” Downey said. “But that’s first defense line.”
Duncan encouraged residents to pick up sandbags early and keep them for the whole season, noting that Imperial Beach ran out of sandbags during a recent storm.
Friend announced that the Coronado Fire Department is finalizing a series of storm preparation town halls, running from early November into early December. Locations include the Coronado Cays HOA, the Spreckels Center, and the Nautilus Room. Dates will be announced soon.
