Last week’s storm system took down numerous power lines in a canyon above Stinson Beach, cutting electricity to nearly 1,000 homes from Wednesday morning until Friday evening while PG&E crews and the Stinson Beach Volunteer Fire Department worked around the clock. “It was awful,” said Betsy Wood, a realtor with Seadrift Realty, which canceled all vacation rentals for the three-day weekend, though half of the renters ended up coming anyway on Saturday. PG&E spokeswoman Deanna Contreras said that normally the company would have accessed the fallen lines—which were on poles about halfway up the canyon, near “flat rock”—by helicopter, but the storm made flying conditions unsafe. Instead, employees had to hike in, clearing debris along the way. And instead of using a helicopter to restore the lines, they were forced to use a more basic method: a wire cannon gun that shoots powerlines from one pole to another. “There’s a big bang, and it sounds like someone is out there deer hunting,” Ms. Contreras explained. Kenny Stevens, chief of the Stinson Beach Fire Protection District, said that although he heard some complaints about the wait time, he was extremely grateful for PG&E’s efforts. “A lot of people are negative, but I don’t want to freeze to death in the dark,” he said. “[PG&E does] as much maintenance as they can, and do a fabulous job in an emergency.” Chief Stevens said he was lucky that his home maintained power, and that the firehouse has a generator. The town’s emergency response group put together a meal on Friday evening, though that’s when the lights finally came back on. The National Weather Service said the storm, which dropped heavy rain and snow statewide, was a class-four atmospheric river at its strongest point in San Diego on a brand-new scale of one to five. West Marin saw a two or three, estimated Jonathan Rutz, a meteorologist for the service. In some locales in California, the National Weather Service reported, last week’s storm dropped more than 10 inches of rain within 24 hours. Locally, the Marin Municipal Water District has measured 45 inches of rain between July 1, 2018 and Feb. 14, 2019 at Lake Lagunitas, up from 20 inches the year before and 35 inches on average. Reservoir storage at Alpine, Bon Tempe, Kent, Lagunitas, Nicasio, Phoenix and Soulajule reservoirs is at 100 percent capacity, compared with the average storage of 86 percent for mid-February. According to the National Weather Service, weak El Niño conditions are present, and there’s a 55 percent likelihood they will persist through the spring.