Despite last weekend’s major storm and a trail of more rain from
the Pacific mid-week, Windsor emerged from the wet weather
relatively unscathed.
Windsor Fire Captain Aron Levin said there were 11 storm related
calls between 4:41 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Friday Jan. 4.
“At about 4:41 in the morning on the fourth is when it all
started for us. We ended up running a call out in Rincon Valley, it
was a structure fire caused by a wire,” he said.
Levin said other calls were about downed trees or power lines.
“Power lines either in the roadways or sparking in the trees,” he
said. “A few trees were down. We had a call for public assistance,
an awning on a trailer was about to blow off.”
Town Manager Matt Mullan said the high winds knocked down some
large tree branches but overall the town faired better than other
parts of the county.
Rains from last Friday’s storm flooded the lower parts of
Windsor and a large oak fell in The Town Green, as well as the
intersection of Bell Road and Old Redwood Highway, and another fell
on Arata Lane at Troon Court Mullan said.
Even with fallen power lines Mullan said the city did not suffer
from any major power outages.
He said Public works was prepared for the storms. “We knew the
storms were coming and our terrific staff were ready,” he said.
Levin said the fire department staffed an extra engine that
Friday to make three engines available.
County officials, meantime, said the storm, although responsible
for some 50 temporary road closures throughout the county because
of falling trees or mud slides, nonetheless didn’t prove
insurmountable to first responders or road crews.
“It went like clockwork,” said Sandy Covall-Alves, Emergency
Services Coordinator/Emergency Manager for the Sonoma County
Department of Emergency Services.
“Last year,” she said, “we had numerous meetings with PG&E
and first responders, including the fire departments, to coordinate
work by the utilities and the fire departments, particularly in
dispatch information when trees down power lines causing road
closures.”
Covall-Alves said her department also sends out regularly
updated weather reports to all agencies involved in flood and storm
issues in order to keep everyone informed of changing
conditions.
“Everyone has been busy,” she said.
Phillip Demery, director of Sonoma County transportation and
public works department, said that as of Wednesday, only four roads
out of the 50 remained closed although “right now there are only
some minor issues with a little material on the roads.”
“We’re fortunate that the high winds we saw earlier have let off
and we don’t anticipate any new problems,” he added, “although
we’re going to continue to monitor the situation.”
“There are a lot of trees here,” said Demery, who came to Sonoma
County from Santa Barbara County earlier this year, “we don’t have
so many trees down there. So far so good.”
According to National Weather Service meteorologist Charles
Bell, most of the upcoming wet weather will hit north of Sonoma
County, but area residents might want to keep their rainsuits, rain
hats and umbrellas handy.
Bell said Thursday, Sonoma County will be wet and could receive
about 1/2 inch of rain. There are no hurricane winds in the the
forecast but because the ground is saturated it is possible that
more trees will lose their footing and fall.
Rainfall totals for the New Year’s storm varied considerably due
to the diverse topography of the county.
Healdsburg received 5.79” from last Friday throgh Sunday while
neighboring Windsor received only 3.82.” Sebastopol’s total for the
weekend reached 5.48.”
Most areas around the county received somewhere between three
and five inches of rain during that time and experienced winds up
to 45 mph, according to official weather reports.
During those downpours, it’s possible for the river to rise two
feet or more an hour, said Bell. The Russian River crested at 26.94
feet in Guerneville on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 10 a.m.
In Healdsburg the river peaked at 17.1 feet at 6 p.m. on Jan. 4.
Both locations were approximately six feet shy of flood stage.
Luckily after Thursday, Bell said rain will be moving on,
leaving the area with cloudy skies, only scattered showers and
possibly a little sunshine over the weekend.
Mullan said Windsor actually benefited from the heavy rains as
they allowed the town to release treated water.
“The good new is with the heavy rains and run off from Mark West
are high and we discharge some of the recycled water,” he said. “We
receive and treat waste water 365 days a year and we are only
allowed to discharge it when the Russian River and surrounding
creeks are at a certain level and that only happens when it
rains.”
