Torrential rainfall throughout the night swamped roadways, creeks and filled rain gauges with totals of more than 5 inches in Cazadero and more than 3 inches in many other Sonoma County communities.
Early Tuesday, reports of falling trees and downed power lines slammed emergency dispatchers. One caller on Westside Road told a dispatcher at 6:50 a.m. they’d come upon a downed tree, tried to go back and found another tree in their path.
Numerous low lying roadways were back under water with this gully washer and mudslides blocked lanes in several areas including multiple spots on Highway 1.
Fierce winds and falling trees and limbs helped knock out power to thousands on the North Coast, including 634 customers in the Cloverdale area and 114 customers southwest of Sebastopol plus numerous smaller outages dotting the region.
About two dozen Sonoma County roadways were closed in spots early Tuesday including River Road between Sunset Avenue and Westside Road due to a slide. The CHP also reported flooding on Highway 101 at the Sonoma‑Marin county line.
Throughout Sonoma County there were 10 roads closed from flooding, 5 from mudslides and 3 from fallen trees, according to a Sonoma County road report.
The CHP may have set a record for calls in a morning. In the Golden Gate region, which includes the Bay Area north through Sonoma and Napa counties, there were 116 calls at 7 40 a.m. A typical morning about that time might have 20 or so reports of crashes and issues.
School closures in Sonoma County included Piner-Olivet Union School District campuses except for Schaefer Elementary. Guerneville School District and Harmony Union in Occidental also are closed, according to a county school official.
You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412 or randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@rossmannreport.
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