El Niño home prep checklist for San Diego homeowners

Outside the house

• Clean gutters and downspouts, then run a hose to check that water flows and drains away from the foundation. Add downspout extensions where water lands next to the house.
• Clear yard drains, area drains and the curb gutter in front of your home. Leaves and dirt in a drain are the usual reason a patio floods.
• Have a roofer check the roof now: loose or cracked tiles, flashing around vents and chimneys, and the spots where you saw stains last winter. Roofers book up fast once the rain starts.
• Trim branches that hang over the roof or power lines, and tie down or store patio furniture, umbrellas and anything that can blow into a window.
• Look at slopes and retaining walls for new cracks, bulges or bare soil. Cover bare slopes with straw or jute netting and point any drainage away from the slope.
• Set trash, recycling and yard bins about 2 to 3 feet back from the curb on pickup day so they do not block the street gutter (City of San Diego guidance).
• Sweep up debris and never hose dirt or construction waste into the street. It ends up blocking the storm drain that protects your block.

Sandbags

• City of San Diego residents can pick up free empty sandbags at recreation centers in each council district, up to 10 bags per household or business. Sand is not provided, so buy it at a hardware store. Check the City storm preparedness page for the current locations.
• Unincorporated areas: the County and CAL FIRE offer free bags, and sand at some stations, at fire stations across the county. Bring a shovel and call ahead. Other cities list their own sites on the County sand and sandbag locations page.
• Place bags in a staggered row across the openings where water came in before: garage door, side gate, the low side of a patio. The County notes that sandbags divert water but do not seal it out, which is one reason flood insurance matters.

Inside the house

• Find the main water shutoff and the electrical panel, and show everyone in the house where they are.
• If you have a sump pump, pour a bucket of water into the pit to confirm it runs. Test ground-fault outlets in the garage and outdoors.
• Lift boxes, cardboard and anything valuable off the garage floor onto shelves. Move important items out of the lowest room.
• Put passports, deeds, insurance policies and the home inventory in a waterproof container, and keep password-protected digital copies (Ready.gov).
• Stock a few days of water, food, medications, flashlights and a charged power bank, and keep the car's tank above half during a storm week.

Photo-document the home before the storms

• Walk through every room with your phone recording video, then take photos of the roof, gutters, slopes, fences, the garage and anything that was repaired recently. Include a quick shot of each wall and ceiling.
• Save everything to cloud storage so it has a date stamp and survives a lost phone.
• Why it matters: if water does get in, "before" photos make an insurance claim faster and cleaner. If you are selling, they also document the home's condition for your disclosures.

Insurance: ask a licensed agent now

• Standard homeowners and renters policies typically exclude damage from flooding, mudslides and debris flows (California Department of Insurance). Flood coverage is a separate policy, through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private insurer.
• Flood insurance generally takes effect 30 days after purchase, except when a lender requires it for a home purchase. If you want coverage for this winter, the call needs to happen now.
• Ask your insurance agent three questions: what does my policy exclude, what would a flood policy cost for my address, and when would it take effect. Karina is not an insurance agent and cannot advise on coverage; the Department's consumer hotline is 800-927-4357.
• Check your address on the FEMA flood map (msc.fema.gov). Flooding also happens outside mapped high-risk zones, so treat the map as a starting point, not the answer.

Alerts and who to call

• Register your cell phone with AlertSanDiego, the County's emergency alert system, and follow the National Weather Service San Diego for watches and warnings.
• City of San Diego: street flooding, call the City's emergency dispatch at 619-527-7500; a blocked storm drain that is not urgent, report it in the Get It Done app. Other cities have their own public works lines; save yours in your phone.
• Life-threatening emergency, downed power lines in the road, or water rising into the house: call 911.
• Never drive or walk through flooded streets, and never around barricades (County of San Diego). Moving water is deeper and faster than it looks.

If you are selling or buying this winter

• Sellers: keep gutters and drains clear before every showing, and fix the small roof items now so they do not show up on the buyer's inspection as big ones.
• Sellers: California requires you to disclose known material facts, including past flooding, drainage problems and water intrusion. Document what happened and what was repaired. Karina walks you through the forms on the selling page.
• Buyers: ask where water goes when it rains, look at the garage floor and the base of walls for stains, and read the seller's disclosures for drainage history. A rainy-day visit tells you more than a sunny one.

General information, not insurance, legal or engineering advice. Sources: NOAA Climate Prediction Center (Oct 8, 2026), NOAA Winter Outlook (Oct 16, 2026), City of San Diego, County of San Diego, California Department of Insurance, FEMA, Ready.gov. Full post with links: www.karinasomenzari.com/el-nino-home-prep-checklist-san-diego.html