Flooded roads, power outages, and more on way
Henry K Lee, Justin Berton
San Francisco Chronicle
01/19/2010
(01-19) 13:58 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The latest in an onslaught of storms hit the Bay Area this morning, knocking out power to thousands, flooding roads, canceling college classes and forcing the closure of the San Francisco Zoo.
At one point, two southbound lanes on Highway 101 near Paul Avenue in San Francisco were closed to traffic because of flooding. All lanes have since reopened, the California Highway Patrol said.
As of 9 a.m., San Francisco had received 1.8 inches of rain over the previous 24 hours, said Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Services. Oakland reported 0.75 of an inch in the same period, the Marin Civic Center 1.43 inches, San Jose 0.43 of an inch and Concord 0.67.
"The rainfall amounts today should be the same as yesterday," said Steve Anderson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "The heaviest rainfall has moved through the area, so we'll be looking at a decreasing amount of rain through the day."
By mid-morning, the cold front had moved east and the sun was shining in downtown San Francisco. A band of showers was offshore, however, and the weather service said heavy downpours and small hail were possible this afternoon, especially from the Peninsula north.
The storm is the second potent system in as many days to march through the Bay Area, with another one on the way Wednesday.
"It's fairly unusual, the fact that we're going to have three fairly strong storms back to back to back," Null said. "Usually, you'll have a weak one, a strong one and another weak one."
Wednesday's storm is looking like the biggest of the three.
"Tomorrow will be more than today, with higher winds," Anderson said. "There will be more widespread damage because the ground is already saturated."
Today's winds were impressive enough. Gusts reached 65 mph on the Golden Gate Bridge at 6 a.m. and on Angel Island at 8 a.m., Null said.
A high surf warning is in effect along the coast. In Pacifica, officials were keeping a close eye on an evacuated apartment complex atop an oceanside cliff on Esplanade Drive, although there were no imminent signs of a pending collapse, said city building director Doug Rider.
The area has become a mini-tourist zone in recent weeks, attracting the curious who have watched the diminishing cliff on the news.
Joe Gonzalez, a photo hobbyist, aimed his lens today at a sidewalk that led straight off a cliff; the coastline beneath had fallen into the sea, exposing a sprinkler head for a lawn that no longer existed.
"It's always interesting to see what Mother Nature can do," Gonzalez said.
As of 1:30 p.m. about 6,900 customers of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. were without power, down from 37,000 earlier in the day. Most of the outages were on the Peninsula and in the South Bay.
Classes at Cañada College in Redwood City and the College of San Mateo have been canceled until 5 p.m. because of the outages, and students will receive text messages and e-mails about whether night classes will be held, said Barbara Christensen, a spokeswoman for the San Mateo County Community College District.
The power was out at Stanford University for five hours earlier today, but the lights are back on and classes for the rest of the day will be held as scheduled, officials said.
In San Francisco, the Great Highway was off-limits from Sloat Boulevard to Lincoln Way because of flooding. Just east of the highway, the San Francisco Zoo decided to close because of broken tree limbs and flooding, said spokeswoman Gwendolyn Tornatore.
"I wouldn't say we had a tremendous amount of damage - just making sure the zoo was safe," Tornatore said.
