Storm damage to top $14M for parks
Santa Clara estimates its losses from rain at $2M and climbing
LIVERMORE — Bay Area parks and open spaces suffered more than $14 million damage from winter storms, and the toll is expected to rise much higher as record-setting rain lingers into spring.
Landslides eating away at or smothering park trails, roads and hillsides was so widespread in so many places that park managers predict the full damage toll won’t become apparent until the ground dries out. Many trail segments remain closed.
The East Bay Regional Park District estimates at least $8.5 million damage from slides and flooding in its large, mostly open space parks in Contra Costa and Alameda counties.
One popular park, Del Valle near Livermore, is scheduled to reopen Saturday after flooding caused some $1.8 million in damage and closed the park for more than three months.
The Santa Clara County Parks system places its preliminary damage toll at $2 million and rising.
The Midpeninsula Open Space District and San Mateo County Parks Department each reported they also suffered millions in damage.
“The storms took a heavy toll. We can’t say how many millions in damage,” said Sarah Birkeland, the acting San Mateo County parks director. “We keep finding new things.”
Birkeland said the steepest price tag could come from overhauling and replacing parts of the main access road to Pescadero Creek Park south of La Honda.
The old logging road became saturated and heavily damaged this winter.
Peggy Gibbons, spokeswoman for the Midpeninsula Open Space District, said it may take extensive engineering work after the ground dries out to come up with estimates to repair many landslides. “It may take years to repair some washed out areas,” she said.
In the East Bay, the costliest damage occurred at Del Valle Park when the popular swimming and boating reservoir there swelled with runoff and spilled five different times into campgrounds, beaches and picnic areas near the shore.
Regional park managers said it took a herculean effort of park employees to clean up and prepare Del Valle to reopen Saturday to campers, boaters, anglers, picnickers and hikers.
“It was a mess. The difference is night and day between now and when it was flooded,” said Jeff Manley, the regional parks manager in charge of recreational lakes.
Crews had to wait for weeks to begin the clean up so as to avoid clearing areas only to see them swamped again with debris from a fresh storm.
Mud covered shoreline beaches. Crews this week were installing fresh pea gravel on the beaches, which are expected to draw large crowds in warmer weather.
Regional park crews did most of the cleanup and repairs themselves.
For some of the heavy lifting though, the park district contracted for help from laborers in CivicCorps, an East Bay job training program for young adults from 18 to 26 years of age.
“It was a huge effort,” Manley said, “and everyone pulled together like a team.”
East Bay and other park district managers say they hope to land federal disaster funds to cover some of the damage.
The Del Valle closure cost the park district about $95,000 in lost revenue — based on the 95 days of closure since Jan. 11 and park estimates that they lose about $1,108 of revenue for each lost day in cool months.
On warm summer days, as many as 10,000 people a day visit the park.
The Del Valle campground attracts overnight visitors even in cold months. It offers tourists an inexpensive place to while visiting the Bay Area.
Curiel Gustavo, of San Leandro, said he is looking forward to returning to Del Valle Park with his family. Saturday, as it turns out, is expected to be dry.
“It’s a good place to fish and have picnics,” he said.