Long in the list of cities impacted by last week’s atmospheric river was Geyserville. While Geyserville and north county as a whole didn’t receive the brunt of the storm — roadways were impacted and some residents experienced flooding.
According to Geyserville Fire Chief Marshall Turbeville, the majority of the flood impact that he saw centered around roads and residential and agricultural flooding.
“As far as major flood damage, there were 15 to 20 houses, a bit of Alexander Valley Road and a lot of (agricultural) land that got flooded,” Turbeville said.
The main damage that occurred, however, had to do with a portion of River Road.
“The Russian River continues to erode that road away,” he said. “So far it’s held up, but if we keep getting storms, it’s inevitable.”
As of press time on March 5, Daniel Virkstis of Sonoma County Transportation and Public Works said that the county was preparing to protect the embankment at River Road. Protecting the embankment involves placing large boulders at the corner of the erosion site.
As the rains were picking up Tuesday night, the Geyserville Protection District stationed engines around the area — in the Vineyard Club, at Highway 128 and Alexander Valley Road, Chiquira Road and at the station — in the event of increased road closures or if River Road ended up washing away.
Overall, the fire department didn’t have to deal with many flood-induced calls.
“Most of the things we dealt with were the day-to-day normal stuff, vehicle accidents and medical aids,” Turbeville said.
While the stationing of engines at various points around town was done as a preparatory measure, the department did have to rescue some vehicles that got stuck in high water.
“We didn’t see accidents or anything increase,” Turbeville said. During the flooding, however, they had to make some vehicle rescues.
“It was frustrating,” he said. “I think we had two cars that decided to drive around barricades. In our opinion, that’s avoidable.”
