Surveying the damage
Break in weather provides window for more storm repairs
Avery, Arnold, and Twain Harte are included in a winter weather advisory from 4 p.m. Monday to 7 a.m. Tuesday, but the brunt of the approaching storm is expected to skirt far north of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, leaving a window of clearer weather through at least Thursday for further storm damage assessments, cleanups, and repairs.
More winds gusting 20 mph were possible Monday and Tuesday. Precipitation was expected to be scant, with less than 1 inch of snow predicted for Ebbetts, Sonora, and Tioga passes through Tuesday, and less than onetenth of 1 inch of rain for the Sonora area through Wednesday.
Another storm could possibly bring more rain and snow to the Mother Lode and the rest of the Central Sierra late Thursday into Friday.
In the meantime Monday, there were still plenty of downed trees and blocked
roads to deal with in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties, and there were still scattered power outages from Jamestown to Sonora and Twain Harte on the Highway 108 corridor, and around Arnold up Highway 4.
Some people lost their power the night of Dec. 25 and did not get their service restored until Sunday.
Tuolumne County government staff were planning a storm impacts update to the Board of Supervisors at a public meeting on Tuesday, when the board will be asked to consider increasing the Public Works Department budget by $50,000 for emergency tree removals.
“Between Dec. 26 and Dec. 29, Tuolumne County received large amounts of rain and snow that accumulated at extraordinary levels at the higher elevations in the county,” Jason Terry, a senior analyst, and Kim Macfarlane, the public works director, said in a staff report to the board. “Due to these large accumulations over a relatively short period of time, many trees came down under the increased weight of the snow blocking roadways and taking down power lines.”
Terry and Macfarlane did not estimate how many trees are down in Tuolumne County due to last week’s storms. Their report said the $50,000 is necessary to spend due to the number of trees down and to ensure routes are open for everyone to get in and out of their homes and neighborhoods and crews can get access for stormdamaged infrastructure.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. completed repairs to a stormdamaged flume section of the Tuolumne Main Canal on Friday and restored flowing water in the conveyance on Saturday, Tuolumne Utilities District announced Monday morning.
Calls for water conservation from TUD were lifted once the canal was repaired, TUD spokeswoman Lisa Westbrook said.
The Main Tuolumne Canal is owned by PG&E and carries 95% of the water TUD provides to more than 40,000 people in Tuolumne County. When a tree fell into the flume section below Lyons Reservoir during a storm on Tuesday last week, the district urged all county residents to conserve water until PG&E repaired the damaged flume.
Storms last week also damaged parts of more than 70 miles of ditch system owned by TUD, Westbrook said. Damage to some ditch sections ranged from minor to major, and included the Soulsbyville ditch, which sustained a berm failure, and the Eureka Ditch Flume B, where a tree fell and repairs were ongoing.
Ditch tenders and other TUD staff were continuing to assess and survey ditch system damage. They were patrolling, maintaining, and making more repairs Monday. Some of the ditch work involved removing more fallen trees, and moving ice and snow that has built up in some ditches, like the Section 4 Ditch in Twain Harte. The district has 600 ditch customers, Westbrook said Monday.
Westbrook said TUD hoped to have water flowing in all ditches and restore the flow of water to all customers by the end of this week. She thanked PG&E and TUD crews for working in extreme weather through the holidays last week, as well as Twain Harte Community Service District, Tuolumne County Roads Department, Tuolumne Band of Me-wuk Indians, Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-wuk Indians, Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services, Caltrans and Utica Power and Calaveras County Water District.