"San Jose Flood: City Knew About Flood Risk, Discussed Evacuations"

"SAN JOSE — New records and details emerged Friday about the disastrous Coyote Creek floods showing that San Jose officials were aware of the risks and prepared extensively for flooding, yet held off alerting residents as waters rose out of fear of unnecessarily alarming people.

City officials have said they were caught off guard when Coyote Creek overflowed its banks the morning of Feb. 21 because they relied on bad information about the creek’s capacity from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which oversees flood control.

But records released by the water district show city officials were told about the flood risk as early as Feb. 8 and had numerous conversations in the days that followed about rising water levels, flood prevention and how to evacuate residents."

Ramona Giwargis reports for the San Jose Mercury News March 3, 2017.