Heavy rain floods Yosemite Greens neighborhood in Manteca

MANTECA, Calif. — Heavy overnight rain in Manteca left residents of the Yosemite Greens neighborhood dealing with several inches of floodwater Sunday, overwhelming storm drains as city crews worked to keep up with rising runoff.

Gallons of water rushed past drains early in the morning, and neighbors said the problem became clear around 7 a.m. Jatinder Singh said he had only a few minutes to react when he saw how quickly the floodwater was rising.

“That front tire is almost underwater, so we moved our car immediately,” Singh said.

Others weren’t as fortunate. One man’s car was left in deeper water, with floodwater reaching the doors before he could get to it and before city crews arrived.

Many residents felt shocked to see the flooding in their neighborhood, which had just opened in 2023.

“It was raining very heavily… yeah, this was surprising,” Manginder Atwal said. “Never seen like this before in just two, three hours, it built up, the water built up.”

As the water inched higher, some of it flowed toward Airport Way, a busy Manteca street. Flooding and debris forced a lane to close.

In just a few hours, landscapes were ruined and bark landed everywhere in the neighborhood. 

“We’re just trying to clean up the bark,” Joshua Jolin said. “Kind of push it into the streets for the street sweepers, see if they can take it away for us, kind of do the heavy lifting for us.”

On social media, Manteca’s mayor said the city is still looking into what caused the flooding. Neither he nor the council member representing the area responded to requests for interviews on Sunday.

Residents worked under gray clouds, hoping the next storm wouldn’t overwhelm the drains again.

“Hopefully, they will resolve this problem,” Singh said. “We will keep an eye on it, see what’s going on. So, let’s see. Hopefully, everything will be okay.”

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