By Kirsten Andelman

Photo, left: flooded home of the Ford family along Chollas Creek

February 1, 2023 (Spring Valley)-- When 86-year old Bienvenida Ford felt the water on her feet January 22, all she could do was yell for her sleeping daughter, Debbie, who jumped up and called 911.  But by then, the waters rushing in from the swollen Chollas Creek were already up to the women’s calves.

Within 20 minutes, the water in their National Avenue living room was up to Bienvenida’s ribs.  In the nick of time, two rescue workers swam inside and dragged her by her armpits to higher ground. Meanwhile, Debbie Ford, age 50, was fending for herself, half paddling, half floating out the front door and towards higher ground.  Hundreds of yards away she could see their freezer – recently stuffed with homemade lumpia – laying on its side on a neighbor’s property.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo via California Highway Patrol

January 8, 2021 (San Diego) – “It’s not everyday you see a sea lion on the freeway,” the California Highway Patrol tweeted after receiving a call shortly before 10 a.m. yesterday reporting a sea lion crossing State Route 94 just west of Interstate 805 in the Fairmount area.

Spring Valley resident Josefine Jandinger was driving east on 94 when she saw two good Samaritans stop their vehicles in the middle of the freeway to direct traffic and protect the wayward pinniped. ‘I see the two amazing humans stopping traffic…trying to save the seal, trying to have the seal walk to the other side of the road,” Jandinger said, ECM news partner 10 News reports.

CHP officers arrived and ran several traffic breaks to assure that the sea lion would not be struck by passing vehicles until Sea World’s rescue team arrived, says Salvador Castro, public information officer for the CHP in San Diego.

September 30, 2012 (San Diego) -- San Diego Police Department Homicide Unit detectives are investigating a murder that occurred on a Chollas Creek street this morning. At 5:34 a.m., officers were dispatched to the 5000 block of Sterling Court on a report of an assault with a deadly weapon. They arrived to find the victim in front of a home, suffering from several apparent stab wounds. Paramedics arrived and transported the victim to a local hospital for treatment. The victim died at the hospital this morning at 7:12 a.m.