STORMS BRING FLOODING; HIGHWAYS SEE CLOSURES
A deluge of rain hit Humboldt County in the final days of 2022, spurring flooding, closed roads, and rivers running extra high.
In the wake of the storms, some highways connecting Humboldt County with inland areas are closed: State Route 36 west of Grizzley Creek was closed due to an active slide but opened to one-way traffic on Saturday; the Hookton Road offramp was closed temporarily but was reopened by Saturday morning; and state Route 211 at Fernbridge was restricted to one lane because of the potential for flooding from the high-running Eel River.
Fernbridge is a high priority for Caltrans, especially in the wake of the 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Dec. 20 that caused seismic damage.
“While Caltrans typically waits to close Fernbridge until a stage height of 24 feet, the temporary supports the bridge is currently utilizing, following the Dec. 20 earthquake, may require a closure at a lower water level,” Manny Machado, a Caltrans District 1 spokesman told the Times-Standard. “We do not anticipate damage to the structure or temporary supports, but flood water could prevent the visibility required for safety monitoring and inspections.”
He added Saturday morning the water appeared to be receding, which was good news to the Caltrans crews on the scene.
The Times-Standard saw a lot of tree branches and vegetation flowing down the river at a higher-thannormal rate of speed.
Additionally, in Trinity County, state Route 299 was closed east of Hawkins Bar due to an active slide. As of Saturday afternoon, the highway was reopened with one-way controlled traffic.
But winter weather is far from over.
The National Weather Service office in Eureka said that Saturday afternoon and Sunday could be drier, but by mid-week, another big storm is projected to hit the county with more high winds and heavy rain.
“We’re expecting dry weather on Sunday followed by another round of rain on Monday and then potentially heavier rain the middle of next week,” meteorologist Jonathan Garner said.
WHERE TO FIND UP-TODATE INFORMATION
National Weather Service: https://www.weather.gov/ eka/
PG&E outages: https:// pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/ outagecenter/
Caltrans QuickMap: https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/
He estimated the midweek storm could produce two to five inches of rain.
Garner said while many local rivers were running high, the only one on flood watch was the Eel River at Fernbridge.
As far as wind gusts in the early weekend storm, there were some that clocked as fast as 40 miles per hour in the King Range area, he said.
While there was a small craft advisory off the coast on Saturday, Garner noted there is a gale watch in effect for Monday late morning and afternoon.
As of Saturday afternoon, there were more than 450 PG&E customers without power, primarily in Southern Humboldt, primarily along Wilder Ridge and Mattole roads. In that area, power was estimated to be restored by Saturday evening — nearly a 24-hour span without power after it was lost around 7:15 p.m. Friday evening.
There was at least one person in McKinleyville without power as well, but the utility offered no estimate of restored power and a spokesperson declined to make calls to determine a time.
Asked Saturday morning if any substations in Humboldt County were impacted by the storm, spokesperson Karly Hernandez responded “not as of yet.” And while the water around the Humboldt Bay Power Station in King Salmon appeared to be much higher than normal, she said there were no storm-related issues for the company.