SAN DIEGO Rising floodwaters in usually dry Southern California have forced at least three hotels in San Diego to evacuate guests, with one hotel requiring the use of emergency lifeboats.
Approximately 50 guests were ferried by inflatable raft from Premier Inn Mission Valley, a budget hotel that has become its own island amid waist-deep flooding.
Two neighboring hotels were also forced to evacuate due to rising waters that knocked out electricity—Comfort Inn Suites Zoo/SeaWorld and Handlery Hotel and Resort. The street called Hotel Circle Place resembles a raging stream rather than an avenue of lodging, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Guests at Premier Inn—which is not affiliated with the Whitbread PLC brand of the same name—say they heard a loud boom when the power went out, possibly an underground electrical station exploding under water. They waited anxiously as swirling floodwaters encircled the hotel, making an escape a tenuous proposition.
No guests were seriously injured, although at least one guest was hospitalized as a precaution.