Despite being drenched with days of near-constant rain and
battered with high winds, San Benito County emerged relatively
unscathed from the series of winter storms that blew in over the
weekend.
Hollister – Despite being drenched with days of near-constant rain and battered with high winds, San Benito County emerged relatively unscathed from the series of winter storms that blew in over the weekend.
The biggest storm-related problem was power lines throughout the city being damaged by falling trees and branches, leaving 8,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers without power on Sunday, according to PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith. While power to the vast majority of customers was restored that day, about 100 were still without power as of late Monday afternoon, he said.
“Hollister was hit pretty hard by this storm,” Smith said.
One man got a hard-learned lesson about driving too fast on wet roads after his car skidded off Highway 152, 150 feet down an embankment into a creek bed four miles west of Dinosaur Point, according to CDF Captain Scott Mane. Firefighters with the California Department of Forestry guided a the man to safety across nearly 100 feet of gushing rainwater, he said.
“This accident and several others that day were the result of high speed and rainy conditions,” Mane said. “It was a very complicated rescue. It was a stressful situation and we were pretty worried, but we got him. We’re pretty happy.”
In Hollister, aside from the power outage, things for the most part ran smoothly throughout the wet and windy winter storms that, according to the National Weather Service, brought more than 2 inches of rain and winds reaching 37mph. While winter storms usually come from Alaska, this round of storms blew all the way across the Pacific Ocean from China, NWS forecaster Steve Anderson said.
Anderson said that there will likely be more rain today, and then things will start to dry out on Tuesday and remain dry through the weekend.
Hollister Community Services Director Clay Lee said there was “nothing significant” to report in the way of damage or flooding. But he did had a crew out Sunday night pulling leaves and small tree limbs out of plugged storm drains, he said.
“We fared fairly well, it looks like,” Lee said.
The Hollister Municipal Airport was not significantly affected by the series of storms – just some damaged sheds and a few hours without power Sunday, according to Airport Manager Bill Gere.
Gere did say, however, that the high winds had most pilots making the prudent decision to keep their planes on terra firma.
“When ducks and seagulls are walking, you shouldn’t be flying a small airplane,” he said.
Capt. Tim Schneider with the Hollister Fire Department said that his department received several calls Sunday about leaning power poles, but that there were no reports of flooding or significant damage.
In Gilroy, the spectacle of flooding in Christmas Hill Park drew out a steady stream of local residents.
Floodwaters swelled Uvas Creek this weekend and submerged the low-lying Silva’s Crossing at the park’s entrance.
The only other major weather-related incident in Gilroy involved a fallen tree at the corner of Forest and Sixth streets, which kept utility workers busy through the weekend.
In Morgan Hill, Watsonville Road was closed for about eight hours Saturday, as were westbound lanes on Dunne Avenue near Hill Road. The city’s public works team mobilized to pump water away from an apartment building on Bisceglia Avenue and removed downed trees and branches all over town. There also were isolated pools of standing water downtown.
While San Benito and Santa Clara counties weathered the storms well, parts further north were not so fortunate.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven counties, including Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, Sacramento, Sonoma, and Trinity. Initial estimates put the damage throughout Northern California at more than $100 million.
Meanwhile, authorities continued to repair and monitor several levees that had either breached, cracked or over-topped from the San Francisco Bay Area to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, causing flooding and evacuations of dozens of residents.
Monday, the rains made their way to Southern California, drenching the route of the Rose Bowl parade for the first time in a half century. The area saw sporadic pounding rain, hail and 40 mph winds, and minor rock and mud slides were reported on canyon roads. Gusts reached up to 79 mph in the Angeles National Forest.
At least three deaths were blamed on the storm, caused by falling trees, including one Sunday when a tree fell onto a woman’s car on Highway 1, authorities said.
The Marin County town of San Anselmo, north of San Francisco, suffered some $40 million in damages after a flooded creek inundated downtown under 4 feet of water, coating city streets with mud. Officials estimated some 50 downtown businesses were damaged.
Staff Writer Serdar Tumgoren and the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Luke Roney covers local government and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected].
