As shocking as all the images and video has been that was shot by local journalists and posted to social media after Monday's historic storm in San Diego, video captured by NBC 7's Drone Ranger on Thursday still has the capacity to shock.
Recorded by NBC 7 Chief Photographer Scott Baird in the neighborhoods of Southcrest and Shelltown, which, along with Encanto and Mountain View, were among the hardest hit by the 3-plus inches of rain that fell in six hours, the drone tour offers an eagle eye's view of the destructive path the flooding took, both inside a nearby flood channel as well as along Birch, Yama, Cottonwood, Beta and Z streets.
In the video, residents can be seen bringing belongings out to sidewalks and cleaning up debris, trying to rebuild their lives. The water is gone, for the most part, but the work left behind for the community will take, months, if not years to complete.
Perhaps most startling of all is footage recorded flying above a concrete flood channel, clearly overgrown with vegetation prior to Monday's storm. Trees, shrubs and other flora have overrun the channel, where standing water remains trapped, and in several sections, destroyed new-looking model cars that appear to have been swept away, only to come to rest on top of one another, looking like battered Matchbox cars at the end of a toddler's tantrum.
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Take a look at the video for a new perspective on the Great Flood of 2024.
