Point Reyes Light - December 30, 2004

Stinson Beach floods as storm batters coast

By Jim Kravets

The National Weather Service issued their urban and small-stream flood warning at 8:37 a.m. Monday morning, but by then water from Easkoot Creek had been pouring into Larry and Mary Anne Walker’s Stinson Beach home for nearly three hours. Hurricane-force winds had been measured at the Point Reyes Lighthouse the night before.

The combination of a fierce Pacific storm and Monday’s 6.1-foot high tide proved a one-two punch for residents of Stinson Beach. Residents living beside Stinson’s flood-prone Easkoot Creek awoke to an angry brown torrent jumping the banks, flooding homes, rendering streets impassable and, unfortunately, still rising. Easkoot Creek empties into Bolinas Lagoon and Monday’s high tide was 11 a.m., still hours away. A high tide can quickly swell tributaries already overburdened with runoff from rainfall.

Creek ‘came up so fast’

"The creek just came up so fast," Mr. Walker said Monday afternoon while mopping up damage after over a foot of muddy water inundated his Calle del Pinos home. Walker has lived at the address since 1988 and he can recall maybe three other times when storms produced similar results. "This is major. Usually there’s not so much rain on the coasts. East Marin, like Kentfield, they usually get the worst of it."

More than eight inches of rain were recorded during the 36 hours from 6 a.m. Sunday to 6 p.m. Monday, at Mount Tamalpais’ Middle Peak weather station. Most of the rainfall occurred overnight, and west-flowing streams soon delivered the water to the coast.

The storm did not dole out rainwater equally. By Tuesday morning, after a 24-hour period where San Francisco International Airport recorded a record rainfall for that day, Livermore registered less than an inch of precipitation.

Meteorologist Bob Benjamin of the National Weather service told The Light that the orientation of the low-pressure system resulted in the storm’s varied distribution.

"A strong, moist, cold shot of air just came in and created this fairly significant amount of rainfall for certain areas," he said.

Hurricane-force winds

The rains were driven by high winds, in some cases falling just short of "hurricane force" on the Beaufort wind scale. Gusts topping 43 mph were recorded at Mount Barnabe at 7:25 p.m. Sunday. National Seashore workers housed at the Point Reyes Lighthouse used a hand-held anemometer to record 70 mph gusts on Sunday afternoon. In response, the Park Service closed the access stairs to the lighthouse. Ranger Mary Beth Shenton explained that if someone collapsed on the stairs – not unheard of – a helicopter has to be sent out to assist. "And helicopters won’t fly if winds exceed 40 mph," she noted.

Despite the usual power outages associated with winter storms, a Pacific Gas and Electric spokesman said there were no storm-related outages. Seven households in Inverness, however, were without power Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. because of a failed transformer, the spokesman added.

This time, however, it was the storm’s rainfall which ultimately caused the most calamity. The Walters share the ground floor of their Stinson Beach home with longtime tenant Barbara Freeman. At 5 a.m. Monday, Freeman got up to feed her cats and returned to bed.

"Then at 6 a.m., I put my foot on the floor and we were flooded! Freeman recalled. "It happened that fast! Now there’s three inches of mud on the floor." For the time being Freeman is staying with friends on moderately high ground down the road in the Seadrift community.

Stinson braces for more

Other Stinson residents, whose homes have so far escaped rising waters, aren’t taking any chances. Robert Von Ahn was awoken before dawn on Monday by neighbors knocking on his Calle De Sierra home to warn him of the breaching creek. He and his girlfriend, Barbara Morton, quickly moved their cars to higher ground. Standing beside the remains of last year’s sandbags, Von Ahn eyed Monday’s high water mark on his front porch when a storm last March brought waves that sent tree trunks and other flotsam into the streets of Stinson Beach.

"I just moved in January, and it was a memorable welcome," he quipped. Lest he forget the experience, Von Ahn keeps an album of pictures nearby.

For the Walkers, Monday’s clean up was not unfamiliar. Three years ago winter storms swept seawater through their house. Seawater or rainwater, it makes little difference to him, Walker said.

"It just depends whether you like cleaning up mud or sand. You get the blower and dry it out." he said, noting that his homeowner’s insurance offers little relief, forcing him to pay for the damages out of his own pocket. "My deductible makes insurance claims impractical," he explained.

Likewise, this wasn’t the first time their tenant has dealt with the seaside town’s darker winter character. A powerful Pacific storm three years ago sent waves coursing through town streets. While driving on Calle de Sierra, one wave, Freeman remembers, flipped her car upside down with her, her husband and four animals inside. "We were like a rubber car in a bathtub!" But then the water flipped the car upright again. Amazingly, Freeman said, all occupants were OK.

In considering her plight, Freeman takes the long-view. "I’m not happy, but all I can think about – in light of what’s happening in Asia with the Tsunami – is that we’re blessed," said Freeman, a resident of Stinson Beach for 40 years.

Keeps an eye on the water

Two blocks north on Calle del Resaca, Guy and Marti Torrey sat beside their glowing woodstove Monday afternoon, trying to relax while keeping an eye on the rising creek just across the road. The couple live on the corner of Calle del Arroyo, where water rendered the main street impassable through most of the morning. Throughout the afternoon, tow trucks rescued stranded cars that had stalled out after the drivers had attempted to drive through three feet of standing water.

On Monday, the Torreys were dry in their home. But rain has continued to fall and another storm is forecast to hit this week, with Monday’s rain merely the first in a series expected to hit the North Coast. "When it floods, [Calle del Resaca] is the one that gets it," Mr. Torrey said. Biding their time with cheese and crackers, the couple didn’t appear visibly concerned. "Everything is an adventure," Mr. Torrey said. "We’ll cross our fingers and hope for the best."

In some cases, homeowners were debating the merits of beginning costly cleanups in light of another storm forecasted to hit Thursday. The National Weather Service predicts the storm could bring four or more additional inches of rain to already saturated soils.

To improve fish habitat, Easkoot Creek is no longer dredged, which some Stinson Beach residents said made flooding worse in the town.

Standing on his corner lot on Calle del Pradero, pumping water out of his flooded lawn, Steve Williams thinks dredging is crucial.

"I’ve lived here ten years, and this is the highest I’ve seen the creek. In the past you could fit a Caterpillar D9 tractor under there," he said, pointing to the Calle del Pradero bridge across Easkoot Creek where flood waters continued to flow freely over the top of the bridge.

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