Rains that have closed roads, downed power lines,
cratered asphalt and overfilled drainage ditches will intensify this
weekend. Wednesday was like a brief day of alfresco lunch. But it will
storm all weekend. Surf will rise. And rain will flood areas at least
as badly as last week. Neglected drainage in Bolinas last week backed
up like a blocked drain. Some natural riverbeds retook their passage
from man; one was Walker Creek that flooded and closed Highway 1 on
Thursday Dec. 22.
Marshall resident Pamela Hall gripped the steering
wheel of her Cadillac as Walker Creek swept her across the northbound
lane, wedging her unevenly against a bluff.
Hall then sat in her half-submerged Cadillac waiting
placidly for help as 20 cars passed by without stopping. Eventually
the water rose so high Hall removed her shoes because she didn’t
want them to get wet. "I’m waiting for my husband," Hall
said. She rolled her pants up and moved to a higher place in the car.
Her husband, Jim Hall, eventually arrived and shortly afterward so did
the fire department.
Hall kept her 1987 Cadillac running while she waited
for help. Jim Hall thinks that is what saved the car. "That car
has 340,000 miles. ... It’s a well built automobile," he said.
Mr. Hall tried to tow his wife out with a rope, but
it snapped like twine. Hall eventually pulled his wife out of the ditch
with a webbed tow-strap delivered from a Caltrans truck. "The car
is running perfect right now, but Pamela is still baffled by how many
people passed her without stopping," he said.
No relief on the way
Heavy rain and strong winds are expected to descend
upon the Bay Area this week and continue through the first week of the
new year as a series of storms move into the area. The National Weather
Service issued a wind advisory for Marin County on Tuesday and a high
surf warning was issued on Wednesday until Thursday morning.
"Assuming they play out, this will be the most
significant rain of the season," said Warren Blier, a NWS meteorologist.
The rain will be intermittent, but overall it "looks wet,"
he said.
Meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration predict a series of three storms carrying sub-tropical
moisture from the Pacific Ocean and slamming it into the northern part
of the Western states. Each successive storm will hit slightly more
south than the prior. West Marin won’t escape any of the storms,
and with each storm becoming progressively stronger, flooding is a major
concern among county officials.
Supersaturation
The rain during the holiday weekend compounded by
the previous weeks of wet weather has left west Marin County supersaturated.
The Marin Municipal Water District reported the capacity of the district’s
seven reservoirs was at 90 percent on Dec. 25; about 20 percent more
than last year’s level. At the start of fall, the reservoirs were
holding more water than in previous years, said MMWD spokesperson Libby
Pischel. Because of above average levels for the fall and the sudden
onslaught of winter rains, Pischel is "anticipating the reservoirs
will fill fairly soon." The persistence of the rain doesn’t
let the ground dry, so when the rains come the ground is already saturated.
Water then floods into reservoirs.
Marin County Fire Department will be monitoring streams
and tides during the next week to determine whether the department will
need to "staff up," Battalion Chief Ed Mestre said. Bags can
be filled with sand at any Marin County fire station at no cost for
people worried about flooding, Capt. Jason Weber said.
The predicted storms are the "most active pattern
we have seen in years," Scott Kennedy, a NOAA meteorologist said.
Because the storms are generating moisture from a wet air mass in the
Pacific Ocean, this pattern carries the potential for drenching weather
and poor road conditions. Mestre isn’t too worried, he says most
people know they should drive slower in wet weather. Despite some minor
traffic accidents, the holiday weekend was "unusually quiet,"
Mestre said.
Most flooding is reported by drivers on the road,
Mestre said. On Wednesday the department had seen a spike in flood-related
calls, people most commonly reported downed trees, he said. Ground saturation
can cause trees and other objects to be uprooted in loose soil.
A telephone pole collapsed on the side of Pt. Reyes-Petaluma
Road near Black Mountain Ranch on Monday Dec. 26, because the ground
supporting the pole eroded away due to heavy water saturation. A guard-rail
and telephone wires were strong enough to suspend the balancing pole
over the road until it was repaired. The pole appeared to float in mid-air
over the pavement for more than five hours while CHP and police kept
the road closed.