January 13 Storm Update - 12:30 PM

Well, there’s some good news: around January 20 or 21, meteorologists are predicting that California will have a chance to dry out! (For the glass-half-empty portion of the crowd, yes, this means that we still have another week of wet, windy, and wild weather — so batten down the hatches, we’re still in this thing.)

POWER UPDATE:
As of yesterday, PG&E was down to 30 separate storm-related outage incidents impacting 580 customers. In other words, the vast majority of West Sonoma County residents had the lights back on by yesterday. Since the inception of the storm series, PG&E crews and contractors restored power to more than 71,000 customers in Sonoma County. Unfortunately, new outages are occurring as a result of ongoing weather conditions. Additional outages are expected over the weekend as the storms continue to impact Sonoma County.

RUSSIAN RIVER:
Watching how quickly and how frequently the wave graphs of the NOAA Russian River forecasts rise and fall just might make you seasick. NOAA’s forecasts keeps jumping up to flood stage before falling below flood stage with a silent, cheeky “just kidding.” While it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for us glued-to-the-forecast weather geeks…. I’ll take a mild flood that was supposed to be worse over a bad flood that was supposed to be mild any day of the week!
With all that said: the NOAA forecast released at 9AM today *does* show the River reaching flood stage in Guerneville, hitting a peak of 34 feet late Sunday morning. Those in low-lying areas should prepare for River-based flooding. Please know that this next storm front may also cause localized flooding of creeks and tributaries.

NORTH COAST:
I had the opportunity, during yesterday’s break between storms, to go and visit some of the areas most impacted by our series of storms. The North Coast was hammered by fallen trees, resulting in severe impacts to public infrastructure, private property, as well as the power grid. The Sea Ranch water system sustained damage; trees fell on top of several homes; large trees remain piled alongside Highway 1 and other critical routes from the heroic efforts of our first responders to reopen roads as quickly as possible. The clear skies and (relative) break from wind provided an opportunity to gather with local fire and community leaders for a brief after-action report and needs assessment. In the future, we are hoping to use transient occupancy tax funds to support pre-positioning of storm supplies at local fire stations and/or schools. I’ve also requested that the County EOC provide storm disaster financing information to North Coast agencies (although we are still awaiting a determination on whether we will be eligible for public assistance funds through FEMA).

ROADS:
Sonoma County Public Infrastructure (AKA SoCoPi) managed what seems like an impossible feat… building a bridge in four days! Salmon Creek Road experienced a major failure on Sunday, trapping residents. SoCoPi worked furiously with local contractors to put together a 90-foot Bailey bridge to span the large road failure. The bridge opened to vehicular traffic on Wednesday, just four days after the road fell into the rushing water! (A tree had blown down and clogged the massive culvert, causing the failure.) Check out the before and after pictures below. Thank you to the contractor, and to Johannes and Rob Houweling from the County, for this small governmental miracle!
While the Salmon Creek repair is good news, we recognize that other roads are at risk of failure in coming storms. Please know that we are aware of the threats on Moscow Road and Timber Cove Road, and I’ll be checking in with SoCoPi about the status of these critical routes later today.

Overview of status of Moscow:
* The old slide area/ Moscow road is open to Duncan's Mills with a short stretch that is one lane.
* The new damaged area was closed after Wednesday night’s car accident, and has had a "soft closure" subsequently. That means that the Pi workmen had a safety closure and were letting locals through but not disaster tourists or others.

Going forward:
* The old slide was approved at long last by FEMA and last week the contract was put out to bid to repair this site. Construction will begin as soon as the area is dry enough this year - late spring/early summer.
* The new damages are 186 feet away from the FEMA site where the slide was at the last flood, so there is no connecting them. (I mention this because we have received that question as to why the new work couldn’t be tacked onto the existing work.)
* While President Biden did declare a disaster, we do not yet know whether funding will be available for the new Moscow Road repair, or for debris removal. (Government backstory: So far FEMA has only approved Category B, which is emergency protective measures. We really need Cat A for debris removal — which includes thousands of trees — and Cat C for permanent repairs, like Moscow Road.) Regardless of funding sources and whether the feds step up, this is a critical road and fixing this slide will be a priority for us.
* Pi is bringing in the required engineering experts to prepare a repair plan.

SAFETY
Tragically, three lives have been lost in the past few days in West County. What’s even more sobering is that these deaths could have been avoided. So please, for the sake of your own life as well as our first responders: turn around, don’t drown. And remember that reading instructions for generator installation and use — as well as consulting or hiring a professional as warranted — can be a matter of life or death.

Stay safe, y’all. More storm to come!