Shared from the 1/6/2023 San Francisco Chronicle eEdition

High toll: Flooded roads, downed trees, blackouts across region — 2 killed

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Patrick Tehan/Special to The Chronicle

In Santa Cruz County, Seacliff State Beach Pier in Aptos is severely damaged. Coastal areas of the county took a beating.

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Brontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle

At South Lake Tahoe, Odilio Vargas lies in the snow near Lake Tahoe Harbor. The Sierra, with the snowpack already higher than usual, could see 4 feet of new snow at higher elevations.

It will take days, if not weeks, to clean up from the major storm that pummeled the Bay Area this week, after strong winds and heavy rain caused thousands of downed trees, hundreds of flooded roadways and hammering waves at the coast.

The storm, the product of a bomb cyclone over the Pacific Ocean and a persistent atmospheric river, was unleashed over a wide swath of California, killing two people — including a toddler in Sonoma County — and injuring several others.

Coastal areas took a beating as heavy surf, high tides and runoff combined into a destructive force Thursday, inundating homes, with Santa Cruz County seeing a wharf and two piers damaged.

Rain totals were well below those of the New Year’s Eve storm, which killed three people, but the combination of three storms in the past week dropped historic amounts of water on local communities, including a jaw-dropping 8 inches falling on San Francisco in the past week, more than a third of the annual average the city expects to see.

In fact, it was the wettest 10-day period for San Francisco since 1871, according to the National Weather Service, with 10.33 inches of rain downtown from Dec. 26 to Jan. 4. The 1862 all-time record of 14.37 inches still stands.

And there’s still more to come, with a series of storms through Jan. 19, according to the weather service. The forecast calls for the first to arrive on Saturday.

A “high risk of heavy rain” is expected over Central California, according to forecasters, and a lot more snow over the Sierra Nevada. More strong winds will likely hit coastal California, increasing the risk of flooding, coastal erosion and landslides in some areas, the weather service said.

The destruction from the most recent onslaught was evident in nearly every Bay Area city Thursday.

Downed trees appeared to have driven much of the damage and destruction, with reports of cars crushed and homes hit as well as blocked tracks delaying BART and Caltrain on Thursday.

Extreme drought conditions have left trees unstable and with the ground saturated from the New Year’s Eve storm and wind gusts reaching 50 mph in even lower elevations and more than 100 mph at the Nicasio Hills weather station in Marin County, it was inevitable many would topple, officials said.

In Occidental, 2-year-old Aeon Tocchini, son of Aisha and Dan Tocchini, was killed Wednesday evening when a tree fell on the family’s mobile home. Firefighters on the scene tried to revive the child but were unable to.

In Fairfield, a 19-year-old died in a single-car crash Wednesday that officials attributed to a flooded road.

In San Francisco, a huge tree fell onto a car on Larkin Street just as evening fell, requiring firefighters to rescue the uninjured family inside. Two other people were injured by falling trees.

There were more than 300 trees and branches down in the city as of Thursday morning, according to San Francisco Public Works.

One of those was a 60-foot cypress tree, toppled by powerful winds Wednesday night. It crashed over city power lines and train tracks near the intersection where five streets come together at West Portal Avenue, Junipero Serra Boulevard and Sloat Boulevard. Crews worked overnight to clear it, as well as a 40-foot eucalyptus it collided with, from obstructing the path of the Muni Metro K and M lines.

On Thursday, workers in the same area had to clear a cluster of acacias that could no longer stand firm in the waterlogged soil.

“They’re actively falling as we’re cutting,” said Drew Landers, an arborist supervisor with Public Works. “I’m seeing more entire tree failures on this storm than I have in a long time.”

With the near-record rain, there was no saving them.

“When the ground is that wet, it doesn’t even need to be a high wind event,” Landers said. “The trees are just like big sails at that point.”

In the city of South San Francisco, the strong winds also toppled an anchored gas station canopy, damaging the structure and the pumps below.

Trees continued to fall Thursday, with a California Highway Patrol officer based in San Jose hospitalized after being struck by a falling tree while responding to a report of an accident on southbound Highway 17 shortly before 11 a.m.

At the coast, downed trees weren’t the only issue as dangerous waves up to 30 feet and a high tide pounded beachside buildings and roadways.

In San Mateo County, high tide surf spilled over onto Highway 1 on Thursday, as steady sets of waves flooded the road, according to Cal Fire officials.

In Santa Cruz County, officials said the storm caused “significant damage” throughout the county, with heavy damage to the Capitola and Seacliff piers. The Capitola wharf and village were also damaged, with mandatory evacuations in place and businesses shuttered.

In Rio del Mar, residents Cindy and Mike Coahran had received a visit Wednesday from the Sheriff's Office, recommending that they evacuate because of possible flooding. But, like many, the couple stayed to watch the ocean water pour into the coastal community.

“We’ve lived here for 25 years, so we kind of know where the water will go,” said Cindy Coahran, whose home was well above the high water.

Yet on Thursday, even the veteran coastal residents were stunned by the flooding throughout the blocks nearest to the ocean, with the waves pushing trash cans, downed trees and other debris through the streets.

“I’m surprised by the (huge) chunks of wood in the water,” Mike Coahran said. “A typical winter storm pours a lot of crap off the beach, but this storm takes it up a notch.”

While the worst of the storm had passed, danger remained, officials said, including the likelihood that the Russian River in the North Bay would tip over its banks Sunday afternoon, after previous forecasts projected that the area could become inundated by Thursday afternoon.

More road closures across the region related to mudslides and falling trees were also expected.

In Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, the strong winds knocked down a tree over an eight-unit apartment complex, displacing residents. No one was injured, but residents were forced to evacuate.

Patty Bigornia, 54, and her three children packed up belongings and searched for a hotel room, driving around until 1 a.m. looking for a vacancy. A tree also fell on the complex, she said, in 2016.

“There was so much talk about removing those trees because they were a hazard, but nothing ever got done,” she said.

More than 100,000 customers across the region lost power in the storm, while others faced evacuation in Santa Clara County as the Uvas Reservoir threatened residents in the Pacheco Pass River Basin.

The impact of the series of storms reverberated among restaurants and other businesses either damaged by the flooding and winds or devastated by the lack of customers.

At the Diamond Cafe in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood, Mike Almuhtadi, who has owned the establishment for nine years, said the bad weather has hit his business hard.

“We had the slowest New Year’s Eve ever for us,” he said. The weather “has killed our business entirely.”

Like a veteran Californian, however, he cited an oft-repeated refrain.

“It’s OK because we need the rain,” he said.

While a tree was blocking the sidewalk down the road, that wasn’t the problem.

“People are just staying home, big time,” he said.

Out on the streets, however, officials urged those sleeping outside to take advantage of emergency shelters opened in Oakland, but Wednesday night’s waves of hard rain and howling winds weren’t enough to bring homeless people inside.

Only one person took advantage of the 75 cots available in the basketball gym at Ira Jenkins Center near Oakland Coliseum. The space was hurriedly prepared Wednesday.

“We had street teams out looking for people, but they were declining,” said Oakland human services manager Scott Means. “They have tents, or didn’t want to leave their things behind.”

Across the Bay Area, workers continued Thursday to clear flooded streets.

In the city of Alameda, the low-lying stretch of Bay Farm Island was an inlet for surging waters during the latest storm, spilling south to flood Island Drive and Harbor Bay Parkway. The two northbound lanes were still submerged Thursday afternoon.

“It floods a little bit a lot of the time around here, but not this bad,” said Kevin Gies, who was behind the counter of Maitland Market, on a residential street between the two large roadways. “Not even close.”

Even before the rain totals were calculated from the Wednesday storm, officials announced that no part of the state was under an exceptional drought status, the highest designation, although the Bay Area continued to be in the moderate to severe category, with much of the central part of the state still in an extreme drought.

Up in the Sierra, the mountains were blanketed with another deep layer of snow, adding to an above-average snowpack, with 5 to 16 inches falling and more expected amid an ongoing winter storm warning through Friday morning. The region could see up to 4 feet of new snow at the higher elevations after the storm passes through.

The Bay Area and state will have about a day to dry out before the next storm arrives Saturday, with widespread rain on the coast and valleys and snow in the Sierra, raising concerns of additional flooding and falling trees. More rain is expected Monday as the atmospheric river keeps its fire hose aimed at the California coast.

Many Bay Area folks have already started bracing themselves for the next round, including Enrique Espinoza, the manager of Robin’s Cafe at 17th and Folsom streets in San Francisco.

He arrived at this cafe early Thursday morning to find that someone had stolen most of his sandbags. The cafe, which is situated in one of the most flood-prone parts of the city, was inundated with 2 inches of water on New Year’s Eve. He had lined the outside of the business before Wednesday’s storm with a dozen sandbags he picked up from the city’s free distribution service.

“Good thing is the water didn’t come in, but I know that the weather isn’t done yet and I need sandbags,” he said, adding he feared the city might run out. “I might need to just go to the beach myself and fill some up.”

San Francisco Chronicle staff writers Jessica Flores and Trisha Thadani and staff meteorologist Gerry Díaz contributed to this report.

Jill Tucker, J.D. Morris and John King are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com, jd.morris@sfchronicle.com, jking@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker,

@thejdmorris, @johnkingsfchron

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