California

Bay Area Hit by 2nd Wet, Windy Storm

By Staff and Wires • •

Northern California was lashed by a second wet and windy storm with the potential to take down trees and power lines on Sunday, days after a similar system moved through the region--though it appeared to do far less damage than a similar system two days earlier..

Thunderstorms and wind gusts of 45 miles per hour were forecast for the San Francisco Bay Area, where the storm was expected to drop as much as 3 inches of rain in coastal hills before moving out Monday afternoon.

The worst of the wind and rain was over for the San Francisco Bay Area by the early afternoon, though scattered showers were expected through Monday morning, said National Weather Service forecaster Austin Cross.

"This storm has less rain and is also moving through a bit quicker than we saw on Friday,'' Cross said. "That's helping it from getting too severe.''

At San Francisco International Airport, officials said 116 flights were canceled as of 9 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration was reporting arrival delays of as much as 2 hours.

Friday's storm led to the cancellation of 175 flights at the airport and delays of up to 90 minutes. It also knocked out power to more than 111,000 people in the Bay Area, almost all of whom had their power restored by Sunday morning. The storm dropped about three-quarters of an inch of rain on San Francisco — a welcome change after six dry weeks.

As of 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 50 San Francisco customers, 1,000 customers on the Peninsula, 600 in the North Bay, 550 in the East Bay, and 600  South Bay customers were without power, according to PG&E.

In Redwood City, the only lights one neighborhood could see were car headlights. Streets and homes were in the dark after power went out early Sunday evening.

"I came home about an hour ago and everything was dead, but its been windy and gusty for the last hour and a half here," Redwood City resident Dave Marcan said.

There were also reports of downed trees and some localized flooding.

Near Emerald Hills, the wind blew hard against trees. Leon Shirman said he will use his iPad because it has power. His house does not.

"I went out, and I came back and it's still out, so I checked the website--first it said 2 a.m. and now it says 6 a.m.," Shirman said.

Trees in Hillsborough gave way to the storm.

"This was a failure, there was a lot of saturation in the soil, probably had a slight lean to it over the driveway," Timberline Tree Service spokesman Steve Willett said. "That was enough to have the roots fail. And what happened then it crashed on this nice set of gates here."

They first cut it back to make sure it was off any lines. Willett said they have responded to 22 tree calls Sunday.

"It's been a very very busy day for us," Willett said. "It didn’t start until right around 10:30 or 11 o' clock, and that’s when we saw the front moved in and a lot of wind that followed."

Another huge tree came down on a house in Sunnyvale. No injuries were reported there.

Also on the Peninsula, flooding has caused traffic on southbound U.S. Highway 101 just north of Marsh Road in San Mateo County Sunday afternoon, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Officers were notified of water flooding all southbound lanes north of Marsh Road around 11:30 a.m., CHP officials said.

At about noon, traffic was backed up for 2 miles just north of Henderson Avenue in Menlo Park, according to the CHP. A Sig-alert was issued at 12:07 p.m.

And in Oakland, the slick roads kept the California Highway Patrol busy, responding to spinouts and accidents.

"You better be careful, be safe out there man," Jermone Johnson of Oakland said. "It's crazy out there, floods everywhere and all that.”

And in the South Bay, motorists on Highway 17 had to veer around a mudslide.

The storm was far from a drought-buster, however, particularly as it stayed warm and didn't bring much snow to the Sierra. Snow is more important than rain because snowpack supplies about a third of the water needed by residents, agriculture and industry.

The storm dropped between 10 to 15 inches of snow at higher elevations of the Northern Sierra, according to the National Weather Service. Sunday's storm system was also expected to be warm, bringing as much as another 14 inches of snow.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said it had brought in crews from Oregon, Washington and Arizona to prepare for the storm.

A wind advisory has been extended until 4 a.m. Monday morning, according to NBC Bay Area Meteorologist Rob Mayeda.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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