Petaluma mops up

Richard Hitchcock bought flood insurance last month just before Christmas, and just in time for the water that invaded his Petaluma home Friday night.

Hitchcock and his wife, Lavonne, spent Saturday mopping up, clearing the dirt and mud deposited by the 1½ feet of water that rushed into their house off Petaluma Boulevard North.

"That was our one consolation," Hitchcock said of the flood insurance, which will help cover the damage from the overflow of the Petaluma River during the storm that finally let up early Saturday.

The Hitchcocks' house was one of about a dozen homes and businesses that were flooded along Petaluma Boulevard North, north of Corona Road.

The rising waters also closed Highway 101 for nine hours at the Sonoma-Marin line when flood-prone San Antonio Creek rose. The freeway link between Sonoma County and the Bay Area did not reopen until around 5 a.m. Saturday.

Some rural roads in low-lying areas of Sonoma County remained under water Saturday.

Rain is in the forecast today, but no significant flooding is anticipated.

"We're not expecting rainfall anywhere near, especially in the North Bay, what we had," said National Weather Meteorologist Duane Dykema. "We could see an inch, or 2, by midday Sunday."

During the 24-hour period that ended at 4 p.m. Saturday, Santa Rosa logged 1.86 inches of rain. That brought the seasonal total to 18.87 inches, surpassing the average 16.43 inches for this time of year.

Showers were expected to continue off and on into Monday before a dry break. Forecasters were calling for chilly and unsettled weather into the week, with fast-moving storm fronts and little threat of flooding.

That's good news for Hitchcock and his neighbors, who have been flooded twice in as many years.

On Friday, the rising waters didn't get as high inside Hitchcock's two-bedroom home as they did during a New Year's storm two years ago. The nearby Petaluma Village Outlet mall also was not affected this time, compared with the 60 stores that experienced flooding in 2006.

While the parking lot at the mall was flooded Saturday morning and delayed the opening of the mall, by 1 p.m. shoppers were streaming in and no stores were closed.

However, at least one business on nearby Petaluma Boulevard, Decora Home Garden and Gift Outlet, suffered significant damage from the floodwaters.

Caroline Vieira said a lot of her inventory was soaked. "It's very disheartening," she said.

Vieira said she bought the building three years ago. "I knew some flooding would occur but not to this extent," she said.

Millions of dollars have been spent on flood control to ease flooding in a former perennial trouble spot -- Petaluma's Payran Street area, about a mile downstream.

Hitchcock believes the remedial work that alleviated the Payran flooding has made it worse in his upstream neighborhood.

As the waters came in to their house, the Hitchcocks grabbed their two dogs -- a Labrador and Chihuahua -- and dropped them off with friends. Then they got a hotel room for the night in Rohnert Park.

They weren't the only Petaluma-area residents who ended up spending the night somewhere else.

At the Leisure Lake Mobile Home park at the intersection of Rainsville and Stony Point roads, authorities advised residents to evacuate so they wouldn't be isolated by rising waters.

About a dozen residents went to a motel and several others were taken in by family members, according to local Red Cross officials.

The shelter at Lucchesi Community Center was also opened Friday night and took in five people.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214

or clark.mason@

pressdemocrat.com