A landslide sent trees crashing into power lines in San Rafael Monday morning.
The landslide happened in the 100 block of Bret Harte Avenue, police said.
A local contractor spent the entire day hauling away all of the rock, mud and debris, before shoring up the hillside for the next storms.
“By tonight, we’ll have the whole thing visqueened with ropes and sandbags for the big storm coming in,” said Gary Ghilotti.
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He said his company has been busy cleaning up slides like this one for Caltrans and cities and counties across the North Bay for two weeks.
“It’s too big for the city crews, so they call on the big boys with the big toys,” he said.
He expects more calls for help to come in as the next round of heavy rain and strong winds strike the region.
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That slide also took down a few power poles and about a dozen homes lost electricity for a few hours.
“We worked to shut off power and then we started making the repairs, and we were able to get customers back up and running relatively quickly,” said Megan McFarlans of PG&E.
She said the company brought in crews from other areas to lend a hand for the storms that are coming.
“So that when the weather hits, and if there are examples of storm-related damage, we will be able to make repairs safely and as quickly as possible,” said McFarland.
Santa Rosa fire officials have been monitoring a hillside on Cooper Drive since the weekend.
They red tagged two homes deemed unsafe to occupy currently and they’re monitoring four more homes including Karen Kanarek’s house.
“The runoff is coming directly into my property now,” she said.
Kanarek now worries water from the impending rain storms will rush off of the plastic covering the hillside behind her neighbors’ homes and come right towards her house.
“The water is slick, and it just comes off the top, and it’s just like a huge runoff – like a waterfall,” she said.
The landslides over the weekend already wiped out a new fence she had put in just a year ago.
