Last winter, residents experienced the second largest flood in East Palo Alto history. Now Bay Area nonprofits are installing gardens designed to soak up stormwater and mitigate future flooding. On Nov. 11, Climate Resilient Communities (CRC), Fresh Approach, and Grassroots Ecology broke ground on the first of 25 rain garden systems to be installed for homeowners at no cost. CRC received nearly $1 million in funding for the project from Coastal Communities, an organization working to reduce water pollution. … Efforts to curtail the effects of flooding are more important than ever as California heads into an ‘El Nino’ year, a period of cooler and wetter weather. Many older East Palo Alto residents still remember flooding in 1998 that resulted in $40 million dollars in damages.