Big storm (San Mateo, San Rafael, San Bruno: apartment, house, living in)

[G Grasshopper]

Lots of rain out there - and wind. I have read about some flooding and a few fatalities as a result. How is everyone doing out there?

[twins4lynn]

Very minor compared to others. My back yard fence is falling over. It was fine before the storm, then began leaning a few days ago, and is leaning even more now. We're fortunate.

[HockeyMac18]

Minor effects for me since I live in an apartment building and don't have any property to maintain. But I have experienced a few things related to the storm over the last week, or so:

• We had our power go out momentarily, and the traffic lights in downtown San Mateo went out the other night (when it was really windy).
• My G/F's mom's house in San Bruno had some downed branches and her fence in her back yard started falling over (due to erosion underneath I think initially, and then exacerbated by the intense winds) - we had to make an emergency repair on Sunday (when the gusts were pretty hard - that was interesting).
• El Camino in Burlingame has been flooded with water for days (the entire right lane was completely unusable yesterday when I drove down it), and my car was hit with a small Eucalyptus branch when driving down in Burlingame on El Camino other day (seriously, those things are a dangerous menace). Saw many downed branches and loose bark pieces everywhere.
• I went for a run on Saturday in San Mateo/Hillsborough, and a giant tree branch fell down a few hundred yards in front of me - I felt lucky to not have been under it.
• BART was out of service yesterday for a large period of time because of a downed tree on the tracks, so using it to get into the City wasn't an option.
• There was a large downed tree on 280 in Hillsborough (near Trousdale) that shut down the traffic going southbound - so we couldn't use 280 for a bit on Sunday.

I'll say that this storm feels (to me) much stronger than the "Storm of the Century" we got a few years ago (where people were really hyping it up, and many even stayed home from work). And I think considering all of its effects (flooding in local rivers, and insane snowfall amounts in the Sierra), that's probably true.


It's not as bad as a bad winter Nor'Easter in terms of inconvenience and overall danger to the general public - but it's still a bad storm, and a lot of people are feeling the brunt of this storm (unfortunately) - I hope everyone is staying safe, especially near rivers and on mountain passes.

[G Grasshopper]

The worst storm for me was in the spring of (I forget the month) of 1991 (?) Living in San Rafael, we had 4 very large eucalyptus trees fall, narrowly missing the house, but taking out our cement drainage ditch, a deck, stairs on the hill and fences. None of the trees broke off, the root balls just lifted out of the soaked soil during heavy winds.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by G Grasshopper

The worst storm for me was in the spring of (I forget the month) of 1991 (?) Living in San Rafael, we had 4 very large eucalyptus trees fall, narrowly missing the house, but taking out our cement drainage ditch, a deck, stairs on the hill and fences. None of the trees broke off, the root balls just lifted out of the soaked soil during heavy winds.

Those things are so dangerous. We have many of them all over the Bay Area, especially near major roads.

At least they smell nice, I guess?

[NextStage]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

Those things are so dangerous. We have many of them all over the Bay Area, especially near major roads.

At least they smell nice, I guess?

Personally I can't stand the smell of wet eucalyptus. May just be a personal thing.

We did pretty well in this storm. Developed a small roof leak - but the roof is old so I wasn't surpised.

The upside (at least for this past weekend) was that the forcasters seemed to have frightened a lot of people into staying home. I had to travel from the East Bay to SF on Saturday and the bridge was almost empty and there was a lot of street parking in SF!

[BayAreaHillbilly]

For all you noobs ...

Especially the ones who thought that "climate change is making the Bay Area into a sun drenched desert" ...

If you live here a few decades you will get a sense of our weather cycles, which follow the ocean temperature cycles.

[G Grasshopper]

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

Those things are so dangerous. We have many of them all over the Bay Area, especially near major roads.

At least they smell nice, I guess?

Sure, it was a big trauma when all those trees fell, but in the long run, I was glad they were gone. They are a fire hazard in the summer and so, so messy!