After Past Floods, Redwood City Braces For A Powerful El Niño And King Tides

REDWOOD CITY, CA — With forecasters warning of a potentially very strong El Niño winter, Redwood City officials laid out an expanded storm-readiness plan that focused on creeks, pump stations and vulnerable neighborhoods at the September meeting.

Acting Public Works Superintendent Linda Chang said that the National Weather Service had issued an El Niño advisory with a greater than 90% chance of a very strong event and that king tides were expected around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

She said staff had already begun clearing debris from creeks, servicing 18 storm pump stations and checking more than 2,500 inlets and catch basins.

Chang also highlighted the Bayfront Canal and Atherton Channel diversion project, which can route excess water into the Ravenswood pond complex, and said the city would operate a second self-serve sandbag station at the Fair Oaks Community Center in addition to the Public Works yard on Broadway.

Councilmembers repeatedly focused on low-lying mobile home parks and renters in older apartment buildings.

Councilmember Diane Howard said the city had to be ready for residents who had flooded before.

“Last time we had really big difficulty with storms…the mobile home parks flooded,” Howard said. “The complaint was there weren’t enough people who spoke Spanish to help the people.”

She urged staff to prepare written information in Spanish and to discourage storage under homes that could worsen flood damage.

Councilmember Marcella Padilla backed the idea of community sandbag events to help residents who could not lift heavy bags on their own.

“I have filled sandbags for neighbors,” Padilla said. “If there’s anyway we could have a community day or event where we could ask other nonprofits or volunteer organizations, schools, if they want to come out and fill bags for their neighbors, I think that would be a fantastic thing we could do as a community.”

Councilmember Isabella Chu said she was willing to go door to door in the mobile home communities she represents.

“I’m happy to go and pass out materials, and even if there’s customized materials for particularly high-risk communities or the mobile home parks,” she said.

Chang said Public Works staff had already started in-person visits to mobile home parks on East Bayshore Boulevard, were checking that privately owned pumps were ready to run, and would host a public storm-preparedness event at the Public Works yard on Oct. 10.