Sonoma County swamped by widespread flooding, as power failures drag on

A fortnight after the onset of storms that have deluged Santa Rosa and most of Sonoma County with over a foot of rain, the long anticipated, widespread flooding finally arrived Monday.

That flooding, however, didn’t occur where it had been most expected, and feared. The Russian River stayed mostly within its banks, while its tributaries backed up and caused minor flooding along vineyards and low-lying areas in the west county.

Elsewhere in the county, numerous roads were closed, and first responders were busy pulling stranded motorists out of submerged cars.

Floodwaters were deceptively deep at on at least one spot on Millbrae Avenue in Santa Rosa — where the driver of a U-Haul truck found himself on two wheels, and in peril —and also at the intersection of Slusser Road and River Road near Windsor.

At least two motorists learned that the hard way, after they were stranded in their engulfed automobiles, and had to be rescued. Sonoma County Fire personnel performed four more weather-related rescues at the offramp to Highway 101 near Shiloh Road.

Each of those motorists had driven past a road closure sign, said Sonoma County Fire District spokesperson Karen Hancock.

The Petaluma Fire Department made at least six weather-related rescues Monday morning.

Numerous road closures included eight in Petaluma alone. Barricades were set up at the intersection North Petaluma Boulevard at Corona Road during Monday morning’s rush hour.

The most recent storm had engorged the Petaluma River, a tidal slough, depositing shin- and knee-high water into some homes and businesses at the north end of the city.

A man named Chris sat in his van on the shoulder of the boulevard, waiting for the water to recede from his studio, concerned about losing his bandsaw.

“It was too heavy to move,” he explained. Chris preferred not provide his last name.

“I don’t want to make too much noise ‘cause I don’t want to get red-tagged,” he said.

From Dec. 26 through Monday, 13.85 inches of rain has been recorded at the Sonoma County airport. A flood watch for the North Bay is in effect through 4 p.m. Tuesday.

But revised projections from the California Nevada River Forecast Center downgraded Russian River flooding concerns in Guerneville, where the river was set to crest at 1 a.m. Tuesday, at its 32-foot flood stage — meaning isolated, minor flooding in low-lying areas.

“That was a nice number to see, relative to what had been forecast,” said Chris Godley, director of the county’s Department of Emergency Management.

Last week’s worst-case projection had called for a crest of 39 feet, just shy of a major disaster along the flood-prone lower river, which in 2019 saw the worst flooding in nearly a quarter century.

Which is not to say these storms haven’t ushered in considerable destruction. Fallen trees, downed power lines and traffic collisions were the three most common weather-related incidents to take place since the heaviest storms developed in the region last week.

Since Jan. 3, Redcom dispatchers have received calls for 530 events across Sonoma County.

This was all on top of the usual 100 to 200 incidents reported to Redcom on a daily basis.

“It’s been pretty nuts,” said Jasmine Mitchell, interim operations manager for Redcom.

Mitchell said, “There are a ton of trees down. That’s going to be a lot of those calls.”

Before it moved south, the storm front that clobbered the county overnight Sunday dropped 2.49 inches of rain at the Sonoma County airport, according to National Weather Service.

Later on Monday, the weather service issued a warning about “dangerous winds” for Sonoma County and much of Northern California. The wind advisory was set to last through 4 p.m. Tuesday.

National Weather Service forecaster Jeff Lorber said the next storm system will bring moderate to heavy rain until Tuesday morning, with lighter showers expected Tuesday afternoon. He said unstable air mass could bring isolated thunderstorms Tuesday, and another inch to half inch of rain in low areas and 1-2 inches of rain in the North Bay mountains.

The rest of the week and into the weekend will remain wet, he said, though these systems won’t bring as much rain as have recent atmospheric rivers.

While expressing relief that the county had dodged a major flooding on the Russian River, Godley continued to focus on “the other impacts of the storm, countywide.”

Foremost among those is the power outages that continue to plague west county, where 3,357 customers remained without power Monday evening. By then, some of them had been without electricity for six days.

“And some of those folks, who are on Day 6 of no power, still don’t have an estimated restoration time” from PG&E, said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district encompasses west county.

Others are being given restoration times several days out, she added. “We’ve had elders in our community who didn’t have power for their oxygen tanks, so a neighbor is running an extension cord from their own generator.”

Hopkins acknowledged the “extraordinary nature” of that Jan. 4 storm.

“You talk to some old-timers, and it’s ‘I’ve seen worse rain, but I haven’t seen worse wind,’” she said. The winds, and resulting treefall, did “an unprecedented level of damage to homes and road systems.”

“There were 60 trees down on Fort Ross Road alone,” said Godley.

Still, said Hopkins, “it’s crazy to me that it’s 2023 and some west county residents may be facing multiple weeks of power outage. It’s rather stunning to see how fragile our electrical grid is, in western Sonoma County.”

With some sections of Guerneville still without power Monday, the nonprofit Russian River Alliance has begun purchasing generators, to give to those in need.

“I’m very concerned about the small business” in and around Guerneville, said Jennifer Wertz, fund manager for the nonprofit. “No one’s coming around, during these conditions, so the volume of business is way down.”

Since the floods of 2019, she said, “We’ve been through the Kincade Fire evacuation, the COVID shutdown, the Walbridge Fire during the COVID shutdown, then another shutdown. This town has been beat up.”

PG&E said it is throwing everything it has into the effort to get the lights back on. Prior to the storms, the utility set up response crews in areas expected to be hit hardest by the wet weather and pre-staged temporary power generators.

The large-scale temporary generators are currently providing power to about 6,300 PG&E customers in Humboldt and Sonoma counties, said Adam Wright, the utility’s chief operating officer and executive vice president, in a Monday press conference.

Steve Baxman, the longtime fire chief in Monte Rio, reported seeing multiple trucks hauling new utility poles rumbling west on Highway 116.

“They need ‘em,” he said. “Just in Monte Rio, up on the Terraces, we got damage you couldn’t believe. I think it could be another week for some of these people” to get their power back.

Press Democrat reporters Madison Smalstig, Colin Atagi and Martin Espinoza contributed reporting. You can reach Staff Writer Austin Murphy at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @ausmurph88.