When rainwater from the Anderson Reservoir first began spilling over into the nearby Coyote Creek, it seemed like a promising sign for the Bay Area, which had been plagued by drought for years. Yet days later, the swelling creek would overflow and rise to 14.4 feet, a record high in the past 95 years.

The flood lasted multiple days and resulted in an estimated $73 million in damages and thousands of ruined homes, prompting the Santa Clara Valley Water District and other government agencies to set up relief efforts and attempt to accommodate those displaced by the flood. Now, a month later, only 50 people remain in shelters, while others have either returned to their homes or have found other places to stay.

“The flooding that I experienced was just outside of my house, in Los Gatos. It was around Vasona Creek. We lost all of our power for three or four days and we had a lot of water outside, but no running water. We didn’t receive any advance notice,” Oliver Doig (10), a Santa Clara resident, said.

While the city slowly recovers from the flooding, questions have arisen about how the flooding occurred—and more importantly, why people were not warned ahead of time.

In general, floods and natural disasters are not uncommon in areas like Coyote Creek. The creek lies near Anderson Dam, which had been overflowing for several days prior to the flood. The area also experienced a similar torrential flood 20 years ago, which destroyed 25 apartment buildings and ravaged nearby neighborhoods.

Additionally, with abnormally high amounts of rainfall in numerous counties during January and February, several other counties experienced similar floods. Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in 50 of California’s 58 counties on Jan. 23, including nine in the Bay Area.

The “how” of the flood seems simple enough: spillage from the Anderson Reservoir combined with heavy rainfall for several days caused the banks of Coyote Creek to overflow. City officials had allowed the reservoir to spill over for fear that the increased pressure on the dam due to the large amounts of water in the reservoir would make the structure seismically unsafe.

However, for many citizens who did not understand the magnitude of the problem until rescue crews appeared at their doors, the question is not how the flood happened, but rather how the city could allow such a disaster to slip by without widespread warning.

“I wasn’t really affected- it didn’t really affect my daily life, but it was more that I was amazed at how much flooding there was. It must have flooded at least three feet on the sidewalk where people actually walk, which was crazy. I don’t think we received a notification beforehand. I think that alerts on your phone—I think they do that sometimes—would be useful for situations like these,” Noa Sasson (12), a Santa Clara resident, said.

So what set this flood apart was not necessarily the flooding itself, but rather the lack of preparation. At a town hall meeting on March 9, angry citizens gathered to speak to city officials, and many expressed their disbelief at the city’s lack of action. Some were completely unaware of the danger of the situation until district authorities went from door to door ordering people to evacuate. Others fled only when they saw floodwater rushing towards their homes.

City officials explained this failure to take action against an increasingly dangerous situation by saying that their flood models indicated that the creek had not reached its capacity of 7,400 cubic feet per second of water. The city has acknowledged that it was taken by surprise because this model, which had last been updated in 2013, underestimated the flood threat.

While the city has made it clear why the flood was unexpected, newly released information showing correspondence about the possibility of a flood at Coyote Creek complicates the investigation into the reasons behind the flooding. Released emails from the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the City of San Jose showed that city officials had been aware that flooding was a possibility.

A water district employee attempted to warn fellow employees as well as the San Jose city government about the threat the day before the flood. However, the city did not issue a flood warning. Instead, San Jose’s mayor, Sam Liccardo, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District posted warnings on social media—which did not reach the majority of residents living near the creek.

As investigations into the causes of the flood and the city’s inaction continue, Mayor Liccardo addressed the chair of the water district, John Varela, in a publicly released letter, expressing his disappointment that district employees have not yet publicly addressed citizens and city council members. Liccardo stated his desire to fix any shortcomings in the city’s flood protection system and asked questions that had been raised at the March 9 town hall meeting.

“I was disappointed that, despite repeated requests from our City Manager and myself more than a week prior to the hearing, the Santa Clara Valley Water District declined to send any engineers, hydrologists or managers with relevant expertise to our March 9 City Council hearing on the recent Coyote Creek flooding,” Liccardo wrote in his letter. “We need answers to many important questions to prevent this kind of damage from happening again.”

Among Liccardo’s concerns include the district’s Coyote Creek Flood Protection Project, which was created as part of an initiative that was approved in 2000. Though the project was approved and has been allocated $32 million, the district has repeatedly delayed work and is currently still in the planning phase of project implementation. Many have pointed out that the project, which is currently slated to begin in 2019, would have prevented some of the flood-related damage that occurred last month.

“We have already begun discussion with members of Congress and their staff on how to seek expedited paths for funding and construction, and there also may be other expedited paths to achieve Federal support for flood protection projects,” Varela wrote in a response to Liccardo’s letter.

Meanwhile, the district is taking on several flood-related initiatives.

The Santa Clara County Public Health and Environmental Health Departments advised those affected by the flooding to beware the possibility of being contaminated by the floodwaters, outlining using soap and water while washing one’s hands, protecting one’s open cuts or sores and avoiding eating any food that may have come into contact with the floodwater as some steps residents could take to keep themselves safe.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on March 28, 2017.