Wind fells trees, power lines in Sonoma County (w/video)

A much-anticipated tropical storm that rained on the North Coast over the weekend blew out in a gusty exit that toppled trees and power lines, blocking roads and leaving pockets of the county in the dark.

After a mostly dry Sunday afternoon, the storm picked up at about 9 p.m. with a burst of wind followed by rainfall.

“The wind, it could blow you over,” Cloverdale Fire Battalion Chief Rick Blackmon said.

Cloverdale firefighters cleared a massive branch that fell onto Cloverdale Boulevard near Cherry Creek Road, blocking the boulevard, in a buzz of chainsaws that was echoed across Sonoma County where trees crashed to the ground.

A tree fell on the porch of a Fitch Mountain home near Healdsburg, emergency dispatchers said.

Crews cleared trees from Highway 1 near Stewarts Point to Barnett Valley Road southwest of Sebastopol to Rio Nido Road in the Russian River valley.

Utility crews were in turn chasing downed power lines ?and blown transformers from Petrified Forest Road in the ?hills between Calistoga and Santa Rosa to downtown Healdsburg.

Lingering showers were expected to break by morning, leaving behind sunny skies forecast for the remainder of the week.

The storm brought the region to rain levels at or above average, but it was not enough to quench a region parched from a multiyear drought, said Carolina Walbrun, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“Unfortunately, we need well above normal to help out the drought situation,” Walbrun said. “But at least we’re at normal for this time of year.”

At the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport, 3.87 inches feel since Friday, bringing the season total from Oct. 1 to Feb. 8 to 22.58 inches. That is just above the average of 22.47 inches for that time period.

In Cazadero, a community with some of the highest rainfall in Sonoma County, the season has brought 41.24 inches of rain since Oct. 1 - compared to 18.05 inches during the same time period last year.

The storm was the first significant rain to fall since a deluge in December that flooded areas in Petaluma, pushed the Russian River over its banks, cut power and closed schools.

That Dec. 11 storm brought four to five inches of rain in most cities, and more than eight inches in the North Coast hills.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com.