STORM GOES RELATIVELY EASY ON VALLEJO AREA
A fierce atmospheric river storm rolled into Northern California on Tuesday, carrying strong winds and a fire hose of water that could deliver more rain than any storm to strike the region in possibly three years.
It started when the system hit the North Bay and began to spread south, which is where it left its strongest imprint.
Yet, the Vallejo and Benicia area received a relatively mild impact compared to other areas.
Vallejo experienced power outages and at least one downed power line, according to Deanna Contreras at PG&E. She told the Times-Herald that an outage due to a downed line struck at 1:15 a.m. and affected 248 customers on Redwood Street west of Valle Vista Avenue until about 4:30 a.m.
Another big outage occurred at 7 a.m. and affected 2400 customers at Columbus Parkway north of Regis Park Drive, due to wind and rain damaged equipment. By noon on Wednesday, Contreras said only 37 addresses remained without power.
Kevin Brown of the Vallejo Fire Department reports that the department dealt with two arcing power lines that had been hit by tree branches but that there were no accidents, downed trees, or downed poles due to the weather.
Elsewhere it was a different story. Contreras said that the East Bay and South Bay were hit the hardest, though there were still patches of Marin County without power on Wednesday morning.
Havoc wreaked by the storm overnight included a rockslide on Capell Valley Road in Napa County, flooding near Interstate 280 and Serramonte Boulevard in Daly City, and a downed tree at Interstate 680 and Calaveras Boulevard in Milpitas, according to the weather service.
As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, the storm had knocked out power to thousands of Bay Area customers, including roughly 20,000 in the East Bay, 5,000 in San Jose and 3,125 in Vacaville, according to PG&E. In Stockton, nearly 28,000 customers lost power.
Contreras said that Vallejo should expect continued rain off and on, but the remaining concern lies in the soil that is already saturated and could cause flooding.
A blizzard warning was in effect in the Lake Tahoe area,
where forecasters expected up to 8 feet of new snow, winds that could hit 100 mph on ridgetops, and whiteouts that could cause life-threatening conditions.
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the Sacramento Valley, saying that low-lying areas up to the Oregon border also are expected to receive snowfall. Redding was forecast to receive 18 inches of snow. The agency also issued a blizzard warning for the Sierra Nevada through Friday morning, warning of high avalanche danger and white outs on the roads.
“This is a life-threatening situation,” the National Weather Service said in a bulletin. “Do not attempt to travel! Road crews and first responders may not be able to rescue you. Stay indoors until the snow and wind subside. Even a short walk could be deadly if you become disoriented.”