After experiencing an already intense round of rainfall earlier this year, San Jose went up against Mother Nature once again.

Over February break, a number of storms hit the Bay Area, causing flooding in certain neighborhoods around San Jose, especially those near Coyote Creek. A few students at Lincoln were even unfortunate enough to have been hit full-on by the storm.

Those who did not take the necessary precautions prior to the storm’s arrival found themselves in a sticky situation once the flooding began. In some cases, local emergency services were called on to aid those in need. A number of people were even displaced as the flooding left their homes temporarily uninhabitable.

“It was pretty bad, it went inside most of the garage and the whole floor got wet so we’re going to have to replace that. It still smells…and it’s contaminated,” said junior Brian Mendoza. “Nobody told us nothing about it, and since we live right next to Coyote Creek, that hit us right away.”

Fortunately, Mendoza’s family was able to return relatively quickly to their home.

“We moved back in the next day.”

Others in the neighborhood, however, were faced with more difficult circumstances.

“[The neighbors’] whole basement got flooded, our basement wasn’t. Most of the kids nearby were scared,” said Mendoza.

Looking back on the aftermath, Mendoza wishes that the city of San Jose would have done more to help those like his family prepare for the flood.

“Give us a warning or just keep the [drains] clean because…not even that much water went down, and it just came back up. We lost a lot of valuable things in the flood.”

San Jose rarely sees storms that cause damage to this extent, so flooding was definitely a surprise to many of the people who live along the creek. As they continue to recover from the storm, the residents hope that maybe next time, they’ll be left high and dry.