Several days after Sunday’s storm blew into West Marin, walloping some areas with hurricane-force winds, residents continued to clear trees and debris while some still waited for the lights to come back on.
As the winds picked up on Sunday afternoon, emergency workers received a flurry of calls from residents reporting snapping power poles from Bolinas to Lagunitas to Tomales, with drivers trapped behind fallen trees and at least one with power lines surrounding their car.
No injuries were reported, but trees crashed into houses in Forest Knolls and Inverness Park and fire badly damaged a house in Nicasio, apparently the result of a storm-related electrical malfunction.
More than 2 inches of rain fell in parts of West Marin on Sunday, but the extreme winds did most of the damage, as gusts hit 89 miles per hour in the national seashore, 99 in Nicasio and 102 at Pablo Point above Bolinas, according to the National Weather Service. In Two Rock, someone captured a tornado in the distance.
More than 32,000 customers lost power across Marin County due to the storm, the second atmospheric river to hit Northern California in less than a week. Power had been restored to most of Inverness and Point Reyes Station by Tuesday afternoon, but on Wednesday, over 1,200 homes in West Marin still lacked electricity.
In just four hours on Sunday afternoon, the Marin County Fire Department received 98 calls for assistance, with most of them coming from West Marin, according to Battalion Chief Todd Overshiner.
“A big fir tree came down and hit two houses on Sanchez Street in Forest Knolls,” he said. “It caused extensive damage to the living room area in one of them and destroyed a small studio home across the street.”
Firefighters spent two hours taming a blaze that broke out at a house on Lucas Valley Road just outside Nicasio at the height of the storm. “The cause is still being investigated, but their power was going on and off at the time of the incident,” Mr. Overshiner said. “The homeowner presumed that it was an electrical fire.”
Emergency personnel rescued four drivers who got stuck on flooded areas of Highway 1 between Point Reyes Station and Tomales and responded to calls about two boats that came unmoored in Tomales Bay, including one that sank. They also rescued a kite surfer who was stranded in the bay.
Schools were closed on Monday throughout West Marin and some remained closed Tuesday, including Lagunitas School, Tomales High and Inverness Elementary. The Bolinas-Stinson School reopened on Tuesday, even though the Bolinas campus was still without lights.
“We were creative with our spaces,” said Ilie Watterson, the school principal. “Our eighth-grade classroom was very dark, so they started the day in the library, and some of our teachers started the day outside. Everybody rallied, and the parents were very grateful.”
At Ms. Watterson’s home in Inverness Park, where electricity was still out on Tuesday, five fir trees crashed to the ground, and one of them narrowly missed the tiny home she rents to a tenant.
In Bolinas, trees and power lines toppled on Mesa and Olema-Bolinas Roads, making it difficult to get in and out of town. PG&E restored power on the Big Mesa on Tuesday night, but other areas remained dark.
“We’ve had multiple power lines and trees down,” said George Krakauer, chief of the Bolinas Fire Protection District. “There are three telephone poles leaning over near the hardware store and several that are snapped at the base.”
The fire department issued a stay-at-home order on Sunday due to the danger posed by fallen power lines. A large eucalyptus tree continued to block the Olema-Bolinas Road on Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities closed roads in several other locations, including Panoramic Highway east of Pantoll Road, where a large fir tree toppled over. After Stinson Beach firefighters arrived on the scene to remove it, a second tree fell, blocking a fire truck from returning to the station without looping all the way back through Muir Beach.
Capt. Boone Vale had just turned back to the station before the second tree fell. “As I was driving away, it fell right behind me,” he said. He and a partner cleared enough of the tree to make one lane passable for emergency vehicles.
Another tree fell across Highway 1 next to the Bolinas Lagoon, blocking the northbound lane, but for the most part, he said, the storm did not cause major damage in Stinson Beach. Last year’s storms inundated the Calles, flooding dozens of homes and forcing people to evacuate.
“A couple waves breached the Calles this time, but it was minimal compared to what’s happened in the past,” Capt. Vale said.
When the winds were most intense on Sunday afternoon, blowing through town at about 50 miles an hour, Bolinas resident Will Bartlett heard an unusual scraping sound coming from his neighbor Mary Nisbet’s house on the Big Mesa.
“The winds were so violent up here that they were literally tearing the roof off of a greenhouse at Mary’s orchid farm,” Mr. Bartlett said. “It’s currently lying on top of two power lines.”
The winds knocked over the porta-potties next to the Nicasio Reservoir, tipped over the bus depot in Inverness Park and knocked down a barn in Tomales.
Charging stations opened at the Multi Services Center in Point Reyes Station and the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, where 30 seniors gathered for their weekly hot lunch on Monday despite the blackout.
“When something like this happens, our main goal is to make sure that people have warmth and shelter and food and someplace to charge their devices,” said Alexa Davidson, the center’s executive director.
One man who attended the Monday lunch was unable to return to his house because power lines had fallen on his street, which was closed off with caution tape. The community center used some emergency funds to book him a hotel room that night.
While the winds were howling on Sunday, Elaine Doss stepped outside her home on Indian Hill Road in Nicasio to check on her generator. She immediately ran back inside. “I felt like I was going to blow away,” she said. “It was that strong.”
The winds have hit 100 miles per hour three times since Ms. Doss moved to Nicasio 46 years ago. One storm turned over a trailer on her property and another ripped the top off a 5,000-gallon redwood water tank. This time, she only lost a metal panel enclosing her hot water heater.
“Miracle of miracles, the pilot light didn’t go out,” she said. “I was lucky this time.”