Storms in the past week took down dozens of trees, damaged a handful of homes, cut power for thousands and spurred car crashes in West Marin, as well as the rest of the county.
About 10 inches of rain fell between Friday and Wednesday mornings in the Point Reyes National Seashore, according to National Weather Service forecaster Steve Anderson. Six inches fell in Point Reyes Station.
There had been 20 road closures on county roads throughout Marin as of Monday, and more on Tuesday and Wednesday, with regular alerts on road blockages and reopenings going out on Twitter and Facebook via the fire department, KWMR, the West Marin Feed and others.
Closures included Platform Bridge Road, which flooded starting on Saturday; Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Samuel P. Taylor State Park, which closed briefly on Tuesday due to a fallen tree that led to a car veering off the road and crashing; Sir Francis Drake at Castro Street in Forest Knolls on Saturday; Tomales-Petaluma Road in Hicks Valley on Sunday; and Levee Road on Tuesday, with the road still covered in water and the parking lot of White House Pool flooded on Wednesday.
Bolinas-Fairfax Road was closed starting on Jan. 7 as a precautionary measure, since dozens of trees always come down there during storms, said Bret McTigue, the fire battalion chief for Marin County Fire. It may reopen on Friday.
The storm also damaged Lucas Valley Road. The road was closed on Saturday and reopened on Sunday, only to have one lane closed later in the day. That closure, which is still in place, was the result of a tree coming down that created a sinkhole under the road, which now bears a crack down a portion of one lane. “The soil gave way and took part of the road with it,” Mr. McTigue said.
There were also closures on state roads and in the seashore, including on Highway 1 south of Olema on Sunday and at Ottinger’s Hill, where as many as 15 trees fell, on Sunday. Seashore spokesman John Dell’Osso said in an email the park is still assessing trail damage. That effort is not complete, but he said that, “all in all, not bad so far. We did have large trees down across both lanes on Limantour Road but [we] cleared a path quickly on Sunday…We did have a 74-mph gust on Sunday at the Lighthouse too.”
The park service closed Muir Woods National Monument on Saturday and again on Tuesday, and the seashore and its nonprofit arm had to cancel classes and events over the weekend, including the Fungus Fair and a children’s bird count.
Numerous power outages also made their way through West Marin, affecting over 6,500 customers: 263 customers in Olema; 479 in Inverness; 803 in San Geromino; 1,726 in Woodacre; 1,249 in Forest Knolls; 1,125 in Lagunitas; 244 in Point Reyes Station; 306 in Tomales; 73 in Marshall and 265 in Bolinas, as of Tuesday evening, according to PG&E spokeswoman Hailey Wilson.
In fact, a Woodacre power outage on Sunday briefly took out the 911 dispatch center in that village, rerouting calls to a different center in San Rafael.
Some homes were damaged during the storm after trees fell on them, including two homes in Woodacre and a cottage in Inverness Park. A branch also fell on a car near Tomales. The man inside it sustained neck injuries, though he was able to transport himself to the hospital, according to the Tomales Volunteer Fire Department.