San Jose flood prevention project aims to protect neighborhoods near Coyote Creek
SAN JOSE -- The Santa Clara Valley Water District will spend the next year and a half installing levees and flood walls along Coyote Creek -- protections designed to prevent a recurrence of the catastrophic flooding from 2017.
"The water rose up very fast," says Hien Nguyen whose apartment was inundated with several feet of water as the creek spilled its banks.
"Total loss," she said, describing the damage. "It was a total loss because we live on the first floor."
On Monday, Valley Water and the City of San Jose began clearing homeless encampments from a 10-mile stretch of the waterway in preparation for the project.
"The main goal of the project is to protect the homes and the businesses that are around Coyote Creek -- to make sure that we can protect for the flooding that we saw in 2017 in San Jose," says Matt Keller, a spokesperson for the water district.
Keller says the project will cost an estimated $115-million and is designed to protect low-lying communities from a so-called 20-year flood event.
"I hope this means the flood won't come back again. Because we already suffered with the tragedy," Hien said.