Local News

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― A Pacific storm slammed the Bay Area on Tuesday, causing scattered flooding and tens of thousands of power outages as well as evacuations in parts of Santa Cruz County.

The National Weather Service on Tuesday issued both a high wind warning until 11 p.m. and a flood advisory until midnight for much of the Bay Area.

"There's an awful lot of moisture in this system falling pretty heavily in quite a few places," NWS forecaster Diana Henderson said. "With it being the first significant system of the rain season, drains are backed up, oil and other materials are starting to rise on the streets. It's just ugly out there."

More than 6 inches of rain had fallen in parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains and more than 4 inches in parts of Marin County by Tuesday afternoon, according to the weather service.

In Rohnert Park, police officers rescued a homeless man whose encampment was swept away by rising creek water near a mobile home park on Redwood Drive.

All throughout the Bay Area, authorities warned drivers against attempting to cross roadways covered by standing water, as it may be too deep to allow vehicles to pass safely.

They also urged motorists to drive slowly over Bay Area bridges because of the stormy conditions. At the Golden Gate Bridge, walkways were closed to pedestrians at 3 p.m. due to heavy wind gusts.

High wind caused a big-rig trailer to overturn onto a car at the midspan of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge just before 3 p.m. in the eastbound lanes. Three people in the car suffered minor injuries and the driver of the big-rig was not injured, according to the California Highway Patrol.

At least one person was killed in an accident along Highway 1 at Devil's Slide, the CHP said.  Officers said wet road conditions, poor visibility and cars travelling too fast resulted in roughly 200 serious accidents in the region -- including two crashes involving CHP patrol cars.

San Francisco Municipal Railway service was briefly disrupted along the L-Taraval line on Taraval Street between 35th and 36th avenues after a derailment that appeared to be caused by storm-related debris.

Caltrans said flooding Tuesday afternoon closed lanes on southbound U.S. Highway 101 in Santa Rosa between Shiloh Road and Airport Boulevard. Caltrans said it also received reports of flooding along sections of Interstate Highway 80 in Solano County.

The incidents were the latest in a series of road closures in the Bay Area throughout the day due to high water, downed trees and downed power lines.

California's electricity grid manager declared a power emergency and called for energy conservation after strong winds knocked down a high-voltage transmission line in Monterey County.

The collapse of the 500 kilovolt line near Moss Landing in an area called Path 15 was making it harder to get power from Southern California to Northern California. Officials said the power flow has been cut by a third.

In all, high wind and heavy rain knocked out power to about 263,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers across northern and central California. More than 35,000 customers remained without power in the Bay Area on Tuesday afternoon, PG&E said.

The exact numbers kept changing as the storm moved through the region, but as of 3 p.m. outages were affecting about 12,000 South Bay customers, 11,000 customers on the Peninsula, 10,000 in the East Bay, 3,200 in the North Bay and 1,200 in San Francisco, the company said.

Fallen tree branches caused many outages, officials explained, and complicated repair efforts.

"It's a very early storm for the season and a lot of leaves are still on the trees and whipping our equipment and crews," PG&E spokeswoman Katie Romans said.

The utility told customers to anticipate an extended outage. The company also encouraged customers to be prepared with flashlights, battery-powered radios and, of course, extra batteries.

Officials cautioned residents to steer clear of downed power lines.

"If you do see a downed power line, assume it's live and do not go near it," another PG&E spokesman, Joe Molica, said. "Keep everyone else, including children and animals, away and call 911 and PG&E right away."

Customers could report outages to (800) PGE-5002. All other service calls should be made to (800) PGE-5000.

Meantime in Santa Cruz County, authorities issued voluntary evacuation orders affecting about 60 homes near areas burned by the Lockheed Fire, a 7,800-acre blaze ignited in August.

The homes impacted were along Swanton Road from the Cheese House to Scotts Creek near the Old Seaside School.

Geologist Mathers Rowley, who lives in the Swanton Road area, said he did not plan to leave right away as his house was in a safe position.

"If I lived in another tributary nearby, I wouldn't be here. There are some really steep denuded slopes that with the wind and rain could send debris straight down. But it hasn't developed where I am. If it gets worse, then we'll see," he said.

Crews nearby were bagging 25 tons of sand for people to use to shore up their homes.

State fire spokeswoman Colleen Baxter said the biggest concern was if the rainfall increases, mud and debris would slip down the hillsides made bare from the summer fire.

"The ground was left unprotected," she said. "That instability combined with the rain, you worry about slippage."

Santa Cruz County spokeswoman Dinah Phillips said there had been no reports of major flooding or mudslides as of Tuesday afternoon, but emergency responders remained on standby.

The American Red Cross set up an evacuation center nearby at the Davenport Resource Center, located at 100 Church St. in Davenport.

Also in Santa Cruz County, a mandatory evacuation remains in place for the residents of dozens of homes near Watsonville.

Authorities say the county's Reverse 911 system on Tuesday evening notified residents of 80 homes along Eureka Canyon Road to evacuate the area.

The Red Cross has set up a center for people forced of their homes at the Corralitos Community Center in Watsonville.

The evacuation order comes after a landslide left a man stranded in his home.

A Santa Cruz County spokesman says work said are trying to clear a road to get to the resident. The man was not hurt in the slide.

The National Weather Service says about 4.5 inches of rain fell in the Watsonville area in a 24-hour period.

The wild weather caused delays of up to three hours all day long at San Francisco International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Airport spokesman Mike McCarron said called Tuesday's storm "a little more severe than normal." 

At Oakland International Airport and Mineta San Jose International Airport, flights were on time despite the storm.

"We're actually in really good shape in Oakland," said spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes. "No delays and no cancellations."

The Blue and Gold Fleet and Golden Gate Ferry also canceled some San Francisco trips on Tuesday due to the stormy weather.

Forecasters said the Bay Area's stormy weather should taper off on Wednesday, and Thursday was expected to be partly cloudy.

Elsewhere, in the Sierra, the first winter storm of the season dumped at least a half foot of snow in the mountains.

Between a foot and 2 feet of snow was expected by Wednesday morning in the mountains between the 7,500 and 9,000 feet elevations with as much as 4 feet possible across the Sierra Crest ridge, where the NWS said wind gusts up to 140 mph Tuesday night could cause blizzard conditions.

Six inches of snow had fallen by Tuesday afternoon at Squaw Valley USA ski resort south of Truckee, and at Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe between Reno and Lake Tahoe, where up to 14 inches of snow was expected by Wednesday. Sugar Bowl near Truckee, Calif., had between 3 and 6 inches.

Neither resort planned to open this weekend but Sugar Bowl spokesman Jon Monson said the snow will make for a good base when they do.

"You want the wet heavy stuff first rather than the wet dry stuff," Monson said.

Boreal Mountain Resort opened last weekend and planned to open again this weekend.

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