Water District to San Jose’s Anti-Trump Mayor: You Failed

The Santa Clara Valley Water District wrote to anti-Trump San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo on Tuesday, placing blame squarely on his administration for mismanaging the Coyote Creek flood last month that caught the city by surprise and forced the evacuation of 14,000 residents.

Many residents were given no warning of the flooding before being forced to leave their homes and belongings and find their way through brave treacherous waters contaminated with fuel and sewage.

The letter, obtained by the San Jose Mercury News, says, in part:

… [W]e would like to understand what the City’s evacuation trigger was, given that the City was also aware of the National Weather Service forecasts predicting flooding, and from a technical and professional standpoint should have been considering those as well as other data presented to the City. Similar to when a hurricane is barreling down on a region, an evacuation decision should not wait for the hurricane to hit to trigger a call for action.

… [O]ur question is: why did the City not act on predictions, maps, data, forecasts and other information from the District and the National Weather Service that flooding was imminent?