Municipal planning has beaten back the weather.
Drying out after the biggest wet weather front in years doused the Bay Area, local officials were upbeat, saying that the impacts of the Bay Area storm were not nearly as bad as they could have been, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Because there was a plan.
"It was relatively controlled chaos," said Bill Murphy, the person in charge of the Santa Clara County Department of Emergency Services, adding that "things worked they way things were supposed to work, and the public was prepared."
Despite the preparation, 276,000 people still lost power when Pacific Gas & Electric Company lines went down. A roof caved in at an East San Jose Safeway supermarket, and a mobile-home park in Redwood City flooded.
The storm wasn't quite as bad as predicted: wind gusts of up to 82 mph were feared, but gusts in San Jose didn't pass much beyond 50 mph, accordng to officials.
Transit woes "never materialized" for all commuters, despite flooding on Interstate 280 and nearly 300 canceled airline fights at area airports.
