Torrential rainfall throughout the night swamped roadways, creeks and rain gauges with totals of more than 5 inches in Cazadero and more than 3 inches in many other Sonoma County communities.
This latest storm to pummel much of the state is reminiscent of January’s storm run, bringing trouble to morning commuters, heavy snow to the Tahoe region, power outages for thousands and eye‑opening rainfall totals.
Early Tuesday reports of falling trees and downed power lines slammed emergency dispatchers who were in constant contact with PG&E officials, alerting them to new problems.
Flood water forced the CHP to close a southbound Highway 101 lane at the Sonoma‑Marin county line. There were reports of trees into homes and cars and schools in six rural Sonoma County school districts canceled class for the day.
Forecasts had called for more than 3 inches of rain in the Sonoma County hills and this storm delivered that and more.
Volunteer weather watchers for the National Weather Service checked in with 3.69 inches in Geyserville, 3.2 inches in Windsor, 3.44 inches in Healdsburg, 3.18 inches in Cloverdale and 3.06 inches in Boyes Hot Springs.
Three rain reports in Cazadero showed 4.29‑5.32 inches fell in those coastal hills since Monday morning. In Santa Rosa, one report was as high as 2.99 inches.
Mendocino County reports included 4.23 inches in Laytonville and 2.34 inches in Ukiah. A Calistoga resident reported 3.35 inches. The volunteer amounts aren’t from official weather stations but offer forecasters a sense of differing weather within the same areas.
About two dozen Sonoma County roadways were closed in spots including River Road between Sunset Avenue and Westside Road due to a slide and a slide was blocking a lane on Highway 1 in Bodega Bay.
Throughout Sonoma County at 8 a.m. there were 10 roads closed from flooding, 5 from mudslides and 3 from fallen trees, according to a Sonoma County road report.
“The biggest thing for us is the slides,” said Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman. “We’ve had 8-10 news ones, everywhere you go.”
The Russian River also was over its banks in the usual lowest areas, including the parking lot at the beach in Monte Rio.
Across the county, a tree reportedly smashed into a Gates Road home in east Santa Rosa off of Calistoga Road. Further details weren’t available early Tuesday.
Also in the east county, dispatchers were notified about 6:30 a.m. of a sewer spill on Boyes Boulevard that was getting into Sonoma Creek.
Fierce winds, 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.
CHP officers throughout the Golden Gate region, which includes the Bay Area north through Sonoma and Napa counties, were responding to 140 calls at 8 a.m. That compares to a typical morning with 20‑30 or so reports of crashes and issues at any one time.
School closures in Sonoma County were at Piner-Olivet Union School District campuses except for Schaefer Elementary. Guerneville School District and Harmony Union in Occidental, Piner‑Olivet Union School District in west Santa Rosa, Two Rock Union School District in Petaluma and Flowery Elementary School in Sonoma
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