Posted on 12/30/2005 11:55:51 AM PST by NormsRevenge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Northern California residents on Friday braced for a pair of powerful winter storms that were expected to bring heavy rain, mudslides and flooding over New Year's weekend.
Parts of Sonoma and Napa counties north of San Francisco reported light to moderate rain Friday morning, with other areas reporting mostly cloudy conditions, according to the National Weather Service.
"It's coming in slowly, but it will move in in buckets later on this afternoon," said Diana Henderson, NWS forecaster based in Monterey.
The San Francisco Bay area and counties farther north were likely to bear the brunt of the storms forecast to hit on Friday and Sunday, Henderson said.
A flood watch was in effect for most of the Bay Area on Friday, with National Weather Service warning that significant flooding was possible on Russian River at Guerneville in Sonoma County by Saturday afternoon.
Residents throughout Sonoma County were busy snapping up sandbags given out free from emergency management officials.
In San Francisco, officials were also offering free sandbags, and work crews were clearing catch basins and storm drains on city streets.
The storms could add as much as six inches to the already water-logged region by the end of the weekend, Henderson said.
Coastal areas such as Santa Cruz and Sonoma were especially at risk of mudslides and flooding.
From July 1 through Wednesday afternoon, San Francisco had received nearly 11 inches of rain, compared with 7.73 inches during the same period last year.
In Sacramento, state water officials were preparing for more rain and flooding after a drenching winter storm this week prompted flood warnings and swelled Northern California rivers to their highest levels in seven years.
"Right now we're at a lull between storms and the rivers are receding," said Don Strickland, spokesman for the Department of Water Resources. "Overall, the flood system is in pretty good shape right now."
The snow level in the Sierra Nevada range was expected to drop to 7,000 feet, which would help water managers, Strickland said.
"If the snow level drops, then it's staying up there in the mountains and not coming down in the rivers and melting the snow that's already there," Strickland said.
Officials planned to closely watch the Delta town of Rio Vista, where the flood level is 12 feet, Strickland said. The Sacramento River could rise more than 10 feet, he said.
The state Department of Conservation urged people with hillside homes to prepare for potentially deadly mudslides. Officials encouraged residents to sign up for flash flood warnings and hazardous weather alerts.
Soggy soil and forecasts of more heavy rain have increased fears that instability in already drenched areas could trigger mudslides that could sweep away cars, buildings and other debris at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour.
Landslides and mudslides kill more than 25 people in the United States every year and cause between $1 billion and $2 billion in damage, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Last January, ten people were killed in the Southern California community of La Conchita when 1.7 million tons of mud and dirt slammed into their homes.
The storm forecast for Friday also was expected to generate waves in the 15- to 20-foot range, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a high surf advisory.
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Associated Press Writers Jennifer Coleman in Sacramento and Jordan Robertson in San Francisco contributed to this story.
Please Post Updates of local flooding, mudslides, etc on this thread.
Be safe out there.
yeehaw.
Watches and Warnings San Jose Forecast
I've never seen our pool overflow from rainfall, this round of storms could make it real close.
Why dont you drain a little of before hand
U.S. Severe Weather Map
http://www.weatherunderground.com/severe.asp
Got milk and bread and firewood and movies yesterday. I hate when it rains buckets here.
off
I'd be curious when it last flooded in San Francisco.
How do you flood a city like this next to the ocean?
Napa-currently mostly light to some moderate rain.
If the winds pick up as predicted I'm sure there will a few more trees go down.
I have a pump on standby but likely we won't get the amounts of precipitation some areas North of here will.
Ah, but the Embarcadero and other places are flat and we are experiencing astronomical high tides (7 feet). My husband has driven along the Embarcadero when a storm caused the bay water to flood the Embarcadero. The waves were crashing and caused water to come to mid-tire. Good thing he's a captain!
Ditto.
Right now here in Sonoma it's just raining small pails. I hope to get home to Petaluma before those buckets hit.
Yeah, we're on the Mendocino Coast and I'm looking at the rising ocean as I type this. We're 50' up and about 300 yards back so if it gets this high we're all in trouble. We've also got a bed and breakfast and wouldn't you know both of the cottages are arriving today even though I've called them and told them the roads could and often do flood--plus they're arriving with dogs. Oh joy unbound. If nothing else this New Years won't be boring.
Storm Expected to Test Levees in Delta Area
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-delta30dec30,1,6468447.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Rone Tempest, Times Staff Writer
---EXCERPTED---
RIO VISTA, Calif. — Residents of the Sacramento River Delta braced Thursday for what some fear could be a wet and destructive weekend as a rare combination of high tides, heavy winds and rising waters converge on the state's most critical water supply system.
The incoming storm threatens large areas of coastal Northern California, where swollen rivers have already reached near flood stage in Sonoma, Mendocino and Humboldt counties.
"Looks like we're setting up for a major winter storm, beginning late tonight," said Rick Canepa, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service for the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast.
A high-wind watch was posted for late Friday afternoon through Saturday morning in the Bay Area.
The 738,000-acre Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is no stranger to flooding. A 1927 deluge destroyed a bridge and much of the community of Rio Vista. In 1972, hundreds of homes were destroyed when a levee broke outside the town of Isleton.
But state and federal flood experts are especially concerned this year because of the deteriorating condition of the delta's 1,100 miles of levees — some more than a century old — in the centerpiece of the state's most precious water supply, responsible for irrigating farmlands in the Central Valley and slaking the thirst of Southern California.
"We expect the river at Rio Vista to reach about 10.5 feet this weekend and the flood stage there is about 12 feet," said California Department of Water Resources spokesman Don Strickland. "The concern is that the rain that has already saturated all the levees, combined with strong southwest winds, will put a lot of extra pressure on the levees that are not in the greatest shape to begin with."
Signs of the weakening levees had already shown up here Thursday as workers along the Georgiana Slough, a waterway about a mile from Isleton, struggled to repair a leak in the levee that flooded adjacent farm fields.
Will you guys please send some of that to Texas!!!
I hope ya'll are ok.
Could y'all in California please send us some of that rain? We are in the worst drought in 50 years here in Texas--and no rain predicted any time soon.
Flood threat intensifies
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14026292p-14858523c.html
Matt Weiser - Sac Bee
A flood warning was issued at 9 a.m. Friday morning for the lower Sacramento Valley, intensifying the flood watch issued Thursday night.
The National Weather Service updated the statement in response to the approaching storm, in effect confirming the original forecast that heavy rainfall is headed into the Sacramento area.
Rivers are expected to rise considerably during and after the storm, with flooding possible along local creeks and streams.
In particular, the warning highlights a flood risk along the Yolo Bypass at Lisbon in Yolo County, just west of Sacramento's Pocket neighborhood; and Cache Creek near Rumsey in Yolo County.
The bulk of the rainfall in the latest storm is still moving toward the Sacramento area.
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