SAN DIEGO — People across San Diego County are bracing for severe weather. 

Under a stormy sky, Melissa Shanholtz is ready for the worst.

She is a horse trainer at Driftwood Ranch in the Tijuana River Valley area and hangs halters on every stall so they can move the horses at a moment's notice.

Shanholtz says in 25 years, the ranch has never been underwater like during the storm that hit San Diego County on Jan. 22. 

As the Tijuana River swept through, she evacuated a hundred horses from the floodwaters that day. 

Now, the halters are ready. Locks are off pens. And contact information is braided into manes.

"It'll make it less time so we can get in and out and the horses won't be as tired," Shanholtz said. "A strong, flowing river like it was the last time — our horses were exhausted."

Tarah Conklin experienced some of the worst flooding in her neighborhood in Mountain View. 

She barely saved her backyard chickens before they drowned in a flash flood. 

She set them up in a friend's garage until she can be sure the flooding won't return.

"Having a flood in San Diego? We hardly even get rain, but who knows if it could happen again?" said Conklin.

Across San Diego County, people are watching the weather closely: a stressful dance to avoid more damage this time around.

"We had our guard down the last time and now we have our guard up, so now that we have a little bit of a plan and, we're definitely a little bit more prepared as to if it does decide to wash us again," Shanholtz said.