City Prepared for Winter Rains

City workers this week have been bracing for winter storms and closely monitoring weather reports.

Heavy rains early last year caused more than $2 million in property damage in Huntington Beach, officials said. Glorria Morrison, emergency services coordinator, said the hope is that precautions will prevent the same thing this winter.

During last January’s storms, more than 300 homes were flooded, motorists were stranded by high water in intersections, and lifeguards used boats to rescue more than 100 people trapped by the torrents.

An emergency shelter was opened, and six flood-control channels peaked near capacity.

“Rain was coming down so hard. If it would have kept coming, it would have flooded the [entire] city. The system can handle only so much,” Morrison said.

For the next few days, the city is safe. No rain is expected this weekend, according to the National Weather Service.

But the city will be ready when the winter storms do arrive, officials said.

The Public Works Department is making sure that catch basins are clear of debris and that flood-control pumping equipment works properly.

Don Noble, maintenance operation manager, said that catch basins must be cleaned regularly so that, when heavy rains do come, the systems transport water efficiently.

“If not, they become plugged up and water backs into the street,” Noble said.

Because more than half of the city is below flood-channel levees, water that goes into the drain system must be pumped to county and city flood channels, said Jeff Renna, water operations manager.

Howard D. Johnson, water production supervisor, said storm drains carry rainwater to 15 flood-control pump stations in residential neighborhoods and next to flood channels.

The largest pump can handle 70,000 gallons of water a minute. Johnson said pump stations are monitored daily through a computer-based system, and maintenance checks at each station are done once a week. He said pumps are ready to operate as soon as it rains.

Johnson said that many of the pump stations were built in the 1960s and that the city will eventually have to replace the equipment at a cost of $1.5 million to $5 million at each station.

“We have a good system. The only problem is it’s getting very old,” he said.

Morrison said the city is still trying to deal with damage from the January 1995 storms.

Settlement of the city’s $2.6-million claim with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for repairing damage to public property and related storm expenses is still pending, she said.