As one storm exits, another begins battering the region as El
Nino returns with vengeance
Hell hath no fury like El Ni
&
amp;ntilde;o.
The storm that struck Friday and stuck around until Tuesday
lived up to its predicted ferocity, and weather experts say the
region, battered by up to three inches of rain and wind gusts up to
70 mph, can expect more of the same through the New Year
– beginning yesterday.
As one storm exits, another begins battering the region as El Nino returns with vengeance
Hell hath no fury like El Niño.
The storm that struck Friday and stuck around until Tuesday lived up to its predicted ferocity, and weather experts say the region, battered by up to three inches of rain and wind gusts up to 70 mph, can expect more of the same through the New Year – beginning yesterday.
“It’s a moderate El Niño, like the one we had in 1994-95,” said David Reynolds, meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service Monterey Office. “Our computer models tell us we’ll have … a little break over the weekend but then another storm track throughout Christmas week.”
Reynolds said the storm expected through tomorrow is one to brace for, especially for people living in the South Valley.
“It looks like it’s going to punch into the central part of the coast,” said Reynolds as he watched the storm pattern on his computer screens. “It will be a colder storm, maybe not as much rain and wind, but for six-to-10 hours it’s going to get wild and wooly.”
He forecasts three to five inches of rain in the Santa Lucia Mountain Range and beyond and said the heaviest rain was due to fall last night after press time. Winds were predicted to be up to 35 mph with gusts up to 50 mph.
The concern is that rain will fall on ground already saturated with water, which could contribute to flash flooding in low-lying areas and along creek banks. Already the area hit by the Croy Fire has suffered as denuded hillsides began to give way after the first storm earlier this week.
Residents still trying to recover from the damage they sustained during the fire were dealt another blow. Culverts along the Croy Loop quickly filled up with mud and debris that washed away from the unstable soil, making the winding road look more like a creek bed.
“It looks like you’re at the beach. There are rocks, sticks and bits and pieces of tires and cans,” said Carl Taylor, a resident of Croy Road.
The bone-jarring dirt road is difficult enough to traverse in dry conditions, but with the addition of the slippery mud it makes for a harrowing drive, which could end up stranding residents.
“When mother-nature gives you the old one-two punch like she did, the results are just devastating,” said Steve Slusser. “We’re overmatched right now and need all the help we can get.”
Two Pacific storms, one a dying typhoon that hit Guam, battered the region beginning Friday and peaking Sunday night and Monday, with remnants coming through Tuesday morning. That storm blasted through the Central Coast and into the heart of the state, leaving 1.9 million residents without power and a path of debris and destruction on Monday morning.
“When I say it rained hard here, it’s hard to imagine the relentless rain,” Slusser said. “It would rain so hard you would think it was impossible and then it would rain a little more.”
Most of the early Monday morning gusts in San Benito and the South Valley peaked on and off for six hours between midnight and 6 a.m., crumpling sheets of metal roofing like soda cans, downing ancient trees, downing lines and blowing electrical transformers, destroying barns and paddocks – and even throwing horses over wire fences.
PG&E crews worked in bone-chilling rain and wind throughout Monday night trying to restore power. By Tuesday morning only 20,000 residents in the hardest hit areas were still without electricity and power to most of San Benito County and southern Santa Clara County had been restored.
PG&E crews take their work in harsh conditions in stride.
“This is nothing new to us,” said John Schlegel, a lineman for PG&E for 20 years, as truck lights illuminated a downed line in a San Benito County pasture.
As Schlegel talked about the safety hazards, the sky occasionally glowed pink behind him – either lightning or a downed line, he said, arcing and cracking in the next valley.
Line workers said that the electricity churning through a downed line is so powerful, that when it lands in sand often it creates a molten piece of glass 30-inches deep.
In Morgan Hill, a landslide slammed into Jackson Elementary School, causing the school to shut down for a day. Water and silt from a ravine above the school washed into the classrooms and left foot-high watermarks on the walls. Crews spent Monday cleaning up the debris.
In southern Santa Clara County, Santa Teresa Boulevard was dotted with yellow “flooded” signs, ag fields looked like lakes and the front yards of new developments were mud puddles.
Residents of Loan Tree Road northwest of Hollister believe a twister raged through pastures in the predawn hours Monday. According to one resident, her family’s 60-foot barn was ripped apart, two full-grown horses were tossed over a fence and part of a stand of eucalyptus trees was knocked down.
The horses, Misty and Foxy, are fine, save for a few bruises and sore legs.
“We heard something that sounded like a freight train that went through our yard and over the top of our house,” said Helen Dalzell. “It was like the Wizard of Oz.”
Reynolds said that one of the strongest gusts of winds clocked before dawn on Monday was on Santa Rita Peak, not far from where the horses where roughed up. The wind measured 72 mph at 5:43 a.m. The Pinnacles Park station in southwest San Benito County measured a 56-mph gust about 10 minutes later.
While predictions for the coming winter don’t call for the amount of rain experienced in the El Niño of 97-98, it is becoming worse than forecasters expected.
“It (this year’s El Niño) still doesn’t look like its as strong as the one we saw in 1997-98,” said meteorologist Reynolds. “But it has grown in strength ever since September.”
There is a silver lining, according to the meteorologist. He said the region should get a break on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But the Friday after that, storms will begin anew.
“We’ll be high and dry for Christmas,” said Reynolds. “But it’s an unstable pattern.”
Staff writers Aeon Hopi Schmook and Joel Turner contributed to this report.
