Valentine’s Day Flood on Russian River wrought record disaster in Sonoma County
No one seems to know who installed the rope that spanned Main Street in Guerneville 30 years ago at the outset of what would be the worst Sonoma County flood in generations.
But as the Russian River crested and spilled its banks, and as the current grew dangerously swift, it was that simple handrail that guided to safety anyone forced by need or circumstance to wade through the hip-high flows that inundated the town during those stormy and perilous days.
For those who experienced it and still speak of it today, the disaster known as the Valentine’s Day Flood evokes unshakable memories of an unrelenting downpour that still carries lessons about the importance of preparation and limits of flood control amid an onslaught by Mother Nature.
And that Guerneville rope, strung between the old Lark Drugs building and what was then a video store, was as fitting a symbol as any of the make-do response first mounted by neighbors and local authorities and that ultimately involved the National Guard in helicopters and rescue boats. For those in the flood zone along the lower river, it was the tenuous lifeline they held to while navigating a world transformed into something unseen, before or since.
“That flood opened up a lot of people’s eyes in the community that a disaster that size really could happen, and when it does it could become utter chaos and extremely, extremely dangerous,” said Herb Genelly III, who was working as an emergency medic for Guerneville Fire.
Looking back three decades later on the six-day deluge that produced the worst Russian River flood on record, those who endured it consider the chaos, loss and desperation of that time with a mixture of grief and heartache, but also wonder and incredulity. It was, many recall, such an unreal experience.
It already had been a wet, El Niño winter, and the ground was fully saturated when a series of tropical storms swept in beginning Feb. 13, 1986, a Thursday leading into a three-day weekend capped by Presidents’ Day.
Over the ensuing six days, the skies opened up. While nearly 12 inches fell in Santa Rosa, more than 20 inches came down in the coastal hills beyond Forestville, most of it draining into the Russian River, where it formed a light brown torrent hurtling toward the ocean.
Every water body in the North Bay overflowed: Spring Lake, the Petaluma River, the Laguna de Santa Rosa, Clear Lake, the Napa River, Santa Rosa Creek.
In the Central Valley, levee breaks wreaked havoc in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and other regions. In the Sierra Nevada, blizzard conditions stranded thousands. States of emergency were declared in 29 California counties.
In the Sonoma Valley, tragedy struck when four teens out on a lark in a rubber raft capsized in Sonoma Creek. One managed to crawl out of the roaring mess, and another was plucked from an overhanging tree by a sheriff’s helicopter crew.
But two younger boys were found drowned the next morning, including one who was tangled in some tree roots at the foot of his yard, said former Kenwood resident Richard Gulson, then a volunteer Kenwood Fire dispatcher.
“I will remember it forever,” he said.
Communities along the lower Russian River were hit the hardest. Twice the river crested above flood levels, submerging streets and depositing in buildings inches, in some cases feet, of silt that would quickly dry into something like concrete once the sun came out.
Some thought they were in the worst of it on Saturday, Feb. 15, when the river rose more than 6 feet above flood stage, reaching 36.4 feet. But after the river began to retreat another round of intense rainfall set in the next night and the floodwaters began to swell again.
Nine inches of rain fell on Guerneville between 4 p.m. Sunday and 4 p.m. Monday, bringing the river to nearly 48 feet before midnight. By early Tuesday, it crested at 48.9 feet, a record that stands today.
Former west county Supervisor Mike Reilly said it was like having someone dump a full bucket of water on your head over and over again. At that time, Reilly was executive director of River Community Services and found himself coordinating aid, assistance and recovery.
“It rained really hard, and it rained that way for a long time,” Reilly, 71, said from his Forestville home. “Sometimes you get those storm bursts where you get the really hard rain for 15 minutes and then it lightens up. Well, this didn’t lighten up. It didn’t stop.”
Two years earlier, workers had completed Warm Springs Dam, which held back the flows of Dry Creek, a Russian River tributary, and created Lake Sonoma - the region’s largest reservoir and main supply of North Bay drinking water. Some boosters who touted the controversial project in the run-up to its construction extolled the dam’s benefits for flood protection. Afterward, officials said it spared downstream residents what would have been an additional 5 vertical feet of flooding.
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