For Malik Zughayar, a typical New Year’s Eve consists of celebration with friends and family, reminiscing over the highlights of the past year. But on Dec. 31, 2022, Zughayar — the owner of Burlingame Avenue’s Caffe Stellato — spent the night sweeping rising levels of water out of his shop.

“The whole street was a river,” Zughayar said. “It happened so fast.”

This winter, California has been plagued by heavy rainfall and thunderstorms, with drainage water flooding streets and forming small lakes outside houses. Throughout California, about five million people were placed under flood watches and at least 18 people have died as a result of these storms.

Local businesses like Caffe Stellato struggled to protect their shops from the flooding rainwater.

“We were lucky that we were inside,” Zughayar said. “We started pushing the water outside but other stores couldn’t do that.”

Zughayar and another employee were pushing water out of their shop for over an hour. Luckily, they have tile flooring, which prevented any major damage.

But the flooding extended far beyond one street. Senior Sophia Van’s basement flooded with nearly two feet of water in early January, ruining many of her old belongings, including baby pictures and blankets. Adding to the damage, the power went out, preventing her sump pumps from draining rain water out.

Her father was forced to walk through the water to reconnect the generator manually. There were numerous electrical utilities in the water, making it a risky and dangerous task. 

“I was scared that he was going to get electrocuted,” Van said.

California is not a state that usually deals with extreme storms. Due to the infrequency, the state was gravely unprepared for the storms as well as the damages.

“On the one hand, we got really lucky because it could have been a lot worse,” biology teacher Michael Dunn said. “But we weren’t anywhere near ready. We were billions of dollars short of being ready.”