Heavy rain and wind to return to Bay Area
Communities brace for more rain; Southern California digs out
Heavy rain and high winds were expected to return to the Bay Area late Sunday afternoon after a powerful storm left at least four people dead in Southern California.
Meteorologists expected light rain to fall in the Bay Area in the late morning and become heavier throughout the afternoon and evening, increasing the risks of flooding and mudslides through Monday.
“The warm front will impact everybody — that is the Sunday night system. But where this system stalls with the cold front is really what we’re most concerned about because that’s where we’ll see those moderate to heavy rain rates come across,” Brian Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Saturday.
The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the Bay Area from Sunday afternoon to late Monday night. The heavy rain could cause flooding in streams and rivers, knock down trees and powerlines and cause mudslides in steep terrains.
“Any areas that have significant standing waters could see cars stuck in flooded areas,” he said.
The storm could also bring winds with gusts greater than 45 miles per hour in the Bay Area. A wind advisory will be in effect from 4 p.m. Sunday to 5 a.m. Tuesday. Flights will be delayed because of the high winds and low visibility, Garcia said.
The heavy rain and winds are expected to have a bigger impact along the coast, including in Santa Cruz County, which could receive a foot of rain from late Saturday evening to early Tuesday morning.
In San Jose, new precipitation amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch is possible along with winds with gusts as high as 23 miles per hour on Sunday, according to the forecast on Saturday.
In Santa Cruz, a high surf advisory was in effect on Saturday, and winds could gust as high as 39 miles per hour on Monday.
A powerful storm wrecked havoc on Southern California on Friday evening, causing car accidents and drownings and an electrocution from a fallen branch. And in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles, a man was electrocuted when a tree falling in heavy rain downed power lines that hit his car.
Meanwhile, officials were keeping a close eye on the water levels in lakes, creeks and rivers for possible flooding.
Early Saturday morning, Anderson Reservoir in Morgan Hill reached maximum capacity and began spilling over for the first time since 2006.
Saturday’s rainfall totals as of 4 p.m. were 0.77 inches for San Jose, 0.71 inches in Oakland, 0.44 inches in San Francisco, and 0.20 inches in Concord.
Bay Area law enforcement officials warned people to not drive, bike or walk through flooded areas.
Two right lanes of the southbound 15 Freeway in the Cajon Pass near San Diego remain closed near Highway 138 on Saturday after a portion of the roadway collapsed Friday night, sending a fire engine toppling into a creek below.
A crew of three was aboard the engine driving in the right lane around 8:30 p.m. Friday when they felt the engine’s back tires sinking into the road, said San Bernardino County Fire Capt. Mike McClintock. They evacuated through the driver’s side of the fire engine before the road gave way, taking the truck with it.
The engine was still running and its emergency lights were on as it fell, McClintock said.
The firefighters were transported to a hospital as a precaution, he said, but none were seriously injured.
The approaching rain could cause more problems in Northern California, where damage to spillways of the Lake Oroville dam forced the evacuation of 188,000 people last weekend. As of Saturday, the lake’s water elevation had fallen more than 45 feet.
Northwest of Sacramento, nearly 200 people were evacuated Saturday as overflowing creeks turned the town of Maxwell into a brown pond, with some homes getting 2 feet of water.
Fire Chief Kenny Cohen said nearly 100 homes and the elementary school filled with a couple inches of water before the water began receding. The area received about 3 inches of rain as of Saturday morning.
In the Studio City area of Los Angeles, a sinkhole swallowed two cars, the second on live TV as viewers watched it teeter on the edge before plunging in. One driver was taken to the hospital in air condition.