South Bay leaders prep for potential 'Super El Niño'

The start of the rainy season could be just a couple of weeks away and in preparation for that and concerns over what's being called a super El Nino in the Pacific Ocean, South Bay leaders gathered this afternoon to discuss preparedness. San Jose City Council members holding a joint session with members of the Valley Water Board of Directors in South San Jose. Their collective goal is for both entities to work collaboratively to protect communities at risk of flooding during the rainy season. That roughly two-hour meeting centered on ways to bring greater clarity for areas of responsibility in the hopes of reducing overlap and improving responsiveness in an emergency. As identified in the Joint Emergency Action Plan, we first start off with monitoring the events that are going on, communicating with each other, also putting out public information. For example, we have this two-page document for residents on how to stay safe and what to do to prepare and what the city of San Jose is doing. We give this information out to the public as well. We take action on the hotspots where we send and deploy staff. Several council members are pushing for better identification of hotspots. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan asked for an assessment of those areas before the rainy season begins. Today, UC climate scientist Daniel Swain said his confidence has increased in the potential impact of a powerful El Nino this winter. And the odds of at least one very wet month in excess of 150 percent of averages is close to 90 to 100 percent in almost every region in California. Swain said record warm water along California's coast is boosting the odds of a wetter-than-average winter statewide. He also said some predictions are calling for close to twice the amount of rain here in the Bay Area. The data points to January, February really being the wettest months possibly. He also expects to see extremely high king tides bringing coastal flooding this winter season.