Isolated for days, hardships piled up in storm-ravaged Cazadero

CAZADERO

The general store here is a community hub year round, but even more so amid last week’s torrential storm, when the town’s roughly 400 residents were cut off from the world, their homes without electricity for days, their roads blocked by raging floodwaters.

Those who chose to wait out the rain gathered at the store nightly to play board games, swap stories and drink beer. They were among the last of the swamped communities along the swollen Russian River to get outside help.

“We have faced potential flooding before, but this was something else,” said Brian Bennett, who with his wife, Laura, moved to Cazadero, northwest of Guerneville, about three years ago after visiting the area for nearly 40 years.

Bennett was buying a new nozzle for the hose to his power washer at Cazadero Supply on Saturday morning. Like others in town, he had begun washing and scrubbing his home of the sludge that covered the couple’s first floor and much of their property in the wake of the flooding.

His morning trip to town included a quick cup of coffee and a chat with Jennifer Sherwood, the Cazadero General Store manager who kept the place open for days as the storm did its worst.

“Now we are busy calling all the right people to come work with us to clean up our home,” Bennett said.

The two main roads into town - Cazadero Highway and Austin Creek Road - reopened on Friday, when utility crews began restoring power to hundreds of customers in town that had gone without since at least Tuesday. Nearly all had electricity restored on Saturday, according to PG&E.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said Cazadero residents had endured among the toughest hardships in her hard-hit west county district.

Many of the town’s wells were flooded with dirty water, leaving potable drinking water scarce. Without power, many residents lacked the ability to boil their water to purify it.

“Most people in west county are tolerant of having a six-hour, 12-hour, even 24-hour power outage, but Cazadero has been out for days and also has no cellphone service,” she said Friday.

Some were less prepared than others.

San Francisco resident Naveen Kanithi, who arrived in Cazadero for a winter retreat days before the storm, said he was unaware that heavy rains and flooding were predicted to inundate Sonoma County.

He had shuffled into the general store on Saturday morning with matted hair and black circles under his eyes. Power had just been restored to his cabin that morning. He said he had been surviving off wine and cold soup for days.

“That, and the tunes of The Grateful Dead,” Kanithi said with a smile, setting three bottles of wine on the countertop for Sherwood to ring up.

“My friend offered me a place to stay here since I am from the city and needed a time-out from all that stress but little did I know I was about to be buried under a flood.”

Bennett spent most of Friday and Saturday ripping up the carpeting from the first floor of his two-story cabin. Inside, photos, figurines, books and kitchen supplies were mostly saved from water damage by being moved to high places.

But mud was everywhere. In the yard, it was worse.

“We can barely move around outside because this mud is the thickest I have ever seen it,” said Laura Bennett. She wore black rain boots but nearly got stuck in the mud at one point while taking videos of the flood property to show to their adult daughters.

Both husband and wife wore matching ballcaps that read, “Caz,” a tribute to their hideaway town that symbolized their resolve to forge ahead.

“We are going to need shovels and wheelbarrows over the coming days to move this out,” she said.

By midday, John Chretien, who lives across the street, had dropped by to sip a cold Modelo beer and get advice on what to do about all the mud.

Chretien is newer to the area and fled his home about 3 a.m. on Wednesday for higher ground in town. Floodwater from Austin Creek stopped just short of his door, but his front yard was destroyed.

“We had this beautiful green lawn that went right to the water’s edge and you can’t even see that anymore,” said Chretien, who lives in Cazadero seasonally. “I have lawn chairs in the trees that I can’t get down and I can barely walk my property without getting stuck in the sludge.”

Cazadero is among the rainiest spots along the entire West Coast. Sherwood, who grew up in town and recently moved back to be closer to her parents, said people move to Cazadero because they like being exposed to the elements.

Also, residents in the small community support each other like one big family, she said. She said most were unfazed by power outage that spanned most of last week.

“People were coming into the store during the storm every day, all day, buying candles, batteries and beer. But everyone was in good spirits.”

“It will rain here and it will flood and it will get bad at times,” Sherwood said. “But in Cazadero you will not be left to fend for yourself. We will all be there to help you get back on your feet.”

You can reach Staff Writer Alexandria Bordas at 707-521-5337 or alexandria.bordas@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @CrossingBordas.