Evacuation orders are in effect in parts of the incorporated small San Mateo County town of Woodside, and the sheriff’s office is not mincing words as they tell residents to “LEAVE NOW.”

Fortunately for much of the Bay Area, it’s now the calm after the storm after Tuesday night’s panoply of weather disasters brought by heavy rains and winds of nearly 80 miles per hour. But the situation is still trending in the wrong direction in the small San Mateo County town of Woodside, as KRON4 reports that mudslides are cutting off roads in Woodside, and “Highly Recommended Evacuation” orders have been in effect since Wednesday morning.

“If you live in this area, please pack your ‘Go Bag’, with necessary essentials: insurance policy, pets, medications, a change of clothes, and LEAVE NOW,” the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office tweeted at 8:10 a.m. Wednesday morning. “Once the road gives out completely, residents in that area will not have access to emergency services. Evacuation location TBD”

Notice that they did not say “if” the road gives out completely, they said “once” the road gives out completely.

The affected area is the 600-800 block of Patrol Road in Woodside, and the sheriff’s office estimates that “approximately 30 homes” are cut off, or at risk of being cut off.

KRON4’s Will Tran was on the scene in the video above where “highly recommended” evacuation orders are in effect, but SFGate reports that two homes were given “mandatory evacuation orders, as in the words of sheriff's office spokesperson Sergeant Javier Acosta, "These homes are in direct proximity to the mud.”

You may not be familiar with Woodside, and perhaps that’s how Woodside would prefer it. It’s one of the wealthiest communities in the United States, and among its homeowners are Larry Ellison, Charles Schwab, and musician Neil Young. Also, it's where Elizabeth Holmes and fiance Billy Evans have been holed up for the past year or two, in a wildly pricy rental, when they're not having to appear in court.

Related: There Were Two Storm-Related Deaths In San Francisco, At Least Two Others Elsewhere In Bay Area [SFist]

Image: @SMCSheriff via Twitter

The popular LED forest installation Entwined is now surrounded by floodwaters of up to a foot deep, but the resulting lake has created a spectacular mirror-image effect that doubles the amount of visual joy the piece creates.

There aren’t many uplifting stories to these rainstorms and floods of the last three weeks, but one particular minor flood has created sort of a fabulous disaster. In Golden Gate Park’s Peacock Meadow, the now-annual winter run of artist Charles Gadeken’s LED forest piece Entwined is now up to a foot deep in floodwaters. But Mother Nature’s work has a spectacular, unintended visual bonus, as the flood waters have created a dazzling effect that mirrors the art above it, and doubles the fun for your eyes.

What was a light-sculpture installation in a meadow, is now more of a light sculpture bedazzling a water feature.

You can still visit this work in Peacock Meadow, just make sure to wear good boots and spare socks, because it’s mucky as heck out there! SFist spoke to Gadeken, who’s quick to point out that despite the battering of storms, the circuits have held up and the lights have run on schedule every single night.

“It hasn't gone down at all,” Gadeken tells SFist. “It’s been fully functioning in ‘Lake Peacock.’”

“We try to make art that could be permanent public art. So it needs to be as weather-proof as possible,” he adds. “It is all very water-proof. There are also circuit-breakers and fuses throughout the piece too for public safety.”

“I got a little lucky, there are a couple of components that are pretty close to the water-line. They’re at the very edges, so the water isn’t as high there.”

There have, however, been a few weekend musical performances scheduled at the piece that have had to be canceled.

“It’s a little sad that they’ve canceled some musical performances, and people can’t really do the interactivity,” Gadeken tells us. “But in exchange, they get twice that visual thing on the beautiful reflections.”

A sign says “This area is closed,” though it’s not really. You can walk up pretty close to some of the trees, right off of JFK Drive, though the water is about a foot deep in its deepest spots.

“I have seen people wading out into the water,” Gadeken says, noting that dogs have been enthusiastically playing in the water too. “It was covered in children before, now it’s covered in dogs.”

But the flood, and its visual effect, were unexpected. “The lake is a complete surprise,” he adds. “But it’s funny, because at the very beginning when we were installing this installation, we knocked a sprinkler head off one of the sprinklers and we [accidentally] flooded the meadow. So on the second day of installation I filled it up like a lake. It was kind of foreshadowing.”  

This year’s Entwined closing party is still scheduled for March 11, and the work remains on display until March 12. This year’s installation was built by a team of 200 different people, and each year’s version of the installation is indeed different.

“It’s not the same at all,” Gadeken says. “The first year there were 23 works of art, then last year there were 56 pieces of art, and this year there are 63 pieces of art. Every year it’s been different, every year it’s grown.”

The story of the gorgeous flood at Entwined is not a typical San Francisco story. But Gadeken’s studio, sadly, is experiencing a typical San Francisco story — they’re being evicted.

“Where Entwined was built was at the Box Shop, and we’re losing our lease,” he explains. “We are trying to find a new home and taking in donations.”

The Box Shop has found a prospective new building in Bayshore, but needs donations from the community to make it work. According to a Box Shop press release, “We are seeking donors to help us raise $3M to help us acquire a new property and make business-needed improvements to a new $8.5M space in the same neighborhood.”

These images can’t do justice to the dazzling flood effect, and that effect could be gone as soon as Wednesday. "I am actually hoping to pump the field out," Gadeken tells us."I haven't got a response from Rec and Parks yet. I haven’t gotten a ‘yes.'"

SFist did get a response from Rec and Parks, who do not sound inclined to drain the lake. "Standing water in Golden Gate Park is expected to drain on its own within a few days to a week," a Rec and Parks spokesperson tells SFist. "Flooding is a common occurrence in some the park’s lower lying areas, such as Marx Meadow and Lindley Meadow, during and after heavy rainfall. Fortunately, part of the park’s design in these low-lying meadows helps capture and manage storm water and allow for its infiltration into the landscape."

They also point us to the SF Parks Alliance calendar for January, which notes that this weekend's events at the Entwined exhibit are also, regrettably, canceled.

Note: This post has been updated with a response from SF Rec and Parks.

Related: Golden Gate Park's Bioluminescent-Like LED Forest Will Now Be on Display Until April 4 [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura (SFist), and Jason Chinn

You can see the rain pouring down outside in a steady, heavy way, and if you were thinking it seemed especially heavy, you would be correct. And if you live in Bernal Heights, the water is flowing pretty much all over.

Our latest "Pineapple Express" river of rain has officially busted a 173-year-old rainfall record for December 31, with nearly five inches falling in San Francisco by 1 p.m., and no immediate sign of letup.

Up in Bernal Heights people are seeing an actual river coming down multiple streets, and Alert SF sent out a warning before noon to avoid Bernal Heights Park and its parking lot due to a mudslide.

Water pooling near the SF Design Center and someone who shouldn't be driving through it:

And the area near Marina Green:

As the National Weather Service tells us, daily records for downtown San Francisco and downtown Oakland, 2.12 inches and 1.81 inches respectively, both set in 2005, have both been far surpassed for December 31, and the rain is still continuing so we won't know until midnight what the daily total actually is.

Also, as ABC 7 meteorologist Drew Tuma tweeted, SF is on track to see the second-highest one-day rainfall total — if not possibly the highest — since rainfall records have been kept in the city. The amount recorded as of 2 p.m. was 5.12 inches, and the current record highest rainfall day, set in 1994, was 5.54 inches on November 5, 1994.

The 24-hour total for San Francisco as of 1 p.m. (which includes rain since 1 p.m. on Friday, because the daily-record totals go midnight to midnight) was 5.19 inches.

Stay dry out there! And careful if you're trying to move around — or, worse, drive around.

The rain is expected to let up by 3 or 4 p.m, and things should be drier come 6 p.m. when people start heading out for their NYE celebrations.

Update: We're also hearing that the power has been out on Twin Peaks since 10 a.m., and Highway 101 was shut down in both directions in South San Francisco due to flooding.

Also, Walnut Creek, the creek itself, is very full, and pictures of Sycamore Creek in Danville are crazy too.

Top image via Zach Klein/Twitter

The massive atmospheric river downpour that drenched California — especially here in NorCal — caused a stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur to dive right into the ocean; this Caltrans’ drone footage shows just how much actually dove off the cliffside.

This week's back-to-back storms left the Bay Area inundated with huge amounts of rain and whistle with wind in the night. Here in San Francisco, the rain was mostly an au naturel scrubbing — washing away abandoned pieces of trash and... let's just call it "gunk." Elsewhere in the region, however, didn't escape as unscathed. A PG&E truck washed off the roadway in Aptos; at least one mudslide was reported along the Sonoma County coastline; further down south, the Carmel River Lagoon has since flooded to waist-high levels — overwhelming the homes of some six residents who lived next to the swelling body of freshwater.

But perhaps the most jaw-dropping disaster to come from the inches of rain was the long expanse of Highway 1 near Rat Creek, about 15 miles south of Big Sur, that seemingly disappeared in the night.

And this bird's-eye view of the damage to the roadway show just how much of the scenic highway tumbled down the hillside.

As reported by KPIX, the Caltrans-captured drone footage revealed the complete washout of Highway 1 at mile marker 30 near Big Creek Bridge. (Looking up from the washout, fallen trees are seen littering the gray ground; the spaces on either side of the roadway also appear to be caving in on themselves; it's all an unsettling episode of déjà vu to the 2017 mudslide that cut off parts of the iconic roadway.)

Per the local news outlet, Caltrans confirmed that Highway 1 will remain closed to through traffic at the location until further notice. However, the highway remains open from Carmel through the town of Big Sur.

Thankfully, Monday and Tuesday's gloomy and wet weather doesn't appear it'll be too much like a Hillary Duff music video circa 2003.

Related: Day Around the Bay: Rain and Gloom Expected To Return Monday

Horse and Pony Rescued From Chest-Deep Mud in Monterey County

Image: Screenshot via @CaltransD5

As has happened many times before, heavy rain flooded parts of the Muni Metro system on Saturday, shutting down train service into Saturday evening between Embarcadero and West Portal.

The Muni system often can't handle a modest bit of rainfall, so when you get a torrential downpour as San Francisco did for a few brief periods on Saturday afternoon, the result is total shutdown. There were small floods all over town on Saturday, with a pretty significant one at Market and Church Street that, obviously, impacted the train tunnels below. Also, as SFGate reports, the platform stairs at Van Ness Station turned into a waterfall — so, yes! It was a lot rain in a short period of time.

Simultaneously, there was a power outage at Forest Hill Station, as ABC 7 reported, but it's not clear if that was weather-related.

Van Ness Station ultimately reopened after 6 p.m., and some Muni service resumed, though Church Street Station remained closed and trains were not running between there and West Portal. Bus shuttles were deployed instead — but the whole situation had a notable calming effect on Santacon, at least in the Castro.

The National Weather Service reported that San Francisco saw 1.22 inches of rain in 24 hours as of 5 p.m. on Saturday.

As of Sunday morning, Muni reported that the flooding at Church Street Station had been resolved, and normal service had resumed.

Meanwhile, rivers of water could be seen in West Portal, the Inner Sunset and along Market Street in the Castro, as well as multiple other low-lying areas that typically see flooding in heavy rain. The intersection of 15th Avenue and Wawona Street in West Portal had thigh-high water at one point, as KPIX reported, because of the location of the intersection at the bottom of several hills. Several homes apparently suffered damages from the flood.

Drought concerns are so last year. This year, floods are the far likelier catastrophe in Northern California as the Sierra Nevada snowpack — currently at 190 percent of its historical average and the largest snowpack since 1998, according to the Bay Area News Group — is expected to melt this week amid an incoming heatwave. Per the Associated Press, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters expect the Merced River in Yosemite National Park to flow a foot over its normal levels beginning Wednesday, and for levels to keep rising higher from there.

There are no immediate flood risks projected here in the Bay Area, and our weather forecast this week calls for fairly standard early-May temperatures in the 60s and 70s. But that means temperatures in the 80s for Sacramento and western slope of the Sierra Mountains, and flood risks in places near Modesto, Truckee, and areas more adjacent to the Sierras.

The California Department of Water Resources is wrapping up its final survey of the winter, and they’re more than a little concerned about the regions surrounding the Sierra Nevadas. “The thing we’re looking out for is primarily the southern Sierra, where we have full reservoirs and in some cases a huge snowpack,” surveyor Frank Gehrke told Bay Area New Group. “We want to make sure that we prudently manage that so we don’t cause any downstream issues.”

State Fish and Wildlife officials say the historic snowpack has caused dozens of Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep to perish, and has kept black bears hibernation a month longer than usual. They discourage hiking and backpacking in the Sierras this week.

Officials do not expect flooding the caliber of the near miss at the Oroville Dam in February that caused massive evacuations, but they do caution Northern California swimmers and fishermen that rivers will be running exceptionally fast and cold during the snowpack melt.

Related: Pictures And Video From A Flooded Guerneville

Tons of rock & vegetation will take crews all day to clear slide NB 17 just past #ScottsValley. Rain could hamper cleanup. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/3ZYFDeWpDF

— David Louie (@abc7david) January 9, 2017

The rain continues, in case you hadn't opened your blinds or left the house in a few days, but luckily the storm system arriving Tuesday will not pack the same punch, rainfall-wise, as the one over the weekend. Still all that saturated ground has led to landslides, rockslides, and toppled trees all over the Bay Area, including a significant landslide that closed down lanes on Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and totaled an ABC 7 news van. And high winds are expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon.

And despite this being somewhat seasonally typical rain, it is more rain than many parts of the Bay Area have gotten in January in many years. A few one-day records were broken on Sunday in Santa Rosa and Livermore, parts of Napa and Guerneville remain under some water and remain at risk of further flooding, as KRON 4 reports, and low-lying parts of Marin County nearest the Bay were dealing with floods on top of King Tides this morning, which typically flood areas around the 101 freeway interchange in Sausalito and the Manzanita Park & Ride in Mill Valley.

Also, part of Napa's Silverado Trail was blocked by a landslide on Monday.

Steve Anderson, a National Weather Service forecaster in Monterey, California tells KRON 4, "It’s been about 10 years since we’ve experienced this kind of rainfall. The big concern [with Tuesday's storm] is flash flooding, rapid rises on creeks and the Russian River coming out of its banks again."

Mud and landslides are also a big concern in Big Sur where so much of the land was scorched in the Soberanes Fire last year. As the Chronicle reports, "A mudslide slammed into a car and scattered coastal redwood trees and debris across Highway 1 just south of the Fernwood Resort on Monday morning. No one was injured, but the slide blocked the road for hours."

High winds are also predicted Tuesday, particularly at higher elevations, and there are blizzard conditions currently in the Sierra Nevada, with several Tahoe ski resorts closed today. In San Francisco we can expect 25- to 35-mph winds today, with gusts up to 45 mph, and higher elevations could see gusts up to 65 mph.

Tahoe has seen two to three feet of new snow in the last 24 hours, with Squaw/Alpine reporting 27 inches, and three to seven feet are expected to fall at lake level through Thursday with five to 10 feet falling at higher elevations.

Also: 150 mile-per-hour winds (!) are expected at ridgetops, which means no one should be up there.

Previously: Pictures And Video From A Flooded Guerneville

Flooding in #Guerneville 😮 #NorthBay #Workfromhome ☔️💧☔️

A video posted by KTVU Channel 2 News (@ktvu2) on Jan 9, 2017 at 9:53am PST

Getting some of the worst of the storm-related flooding today and well into tomorrow is Guerneville and neighboring Sonoma County town Monte Rio. The area is more than familiar with floods, and most houses are built up on stilts because of it, and as floods go, this one appears to be more run-of-the-mill than disastrous for the area. Waters in the Russian River are expected to crest today at 2 p.m. at about 35 feet — which is three feet above flood stage, but down from the earlier crest prediction of 36 to 38 feet. As Russian River Fire Chief Max Ming tells CBS 5, this is kind of no biggie for local residents, who aren't yet evacuating in droves. "These folks are used to this," he says, "and if it were going to get into the 40s [as in feet], I think there’d be a lot more folks wanting to leave."

As the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat explains, this is one of several floods to occur in the area in the last decade, but none have been as bad as the New Year's Eve flood that happened in 2006, which peaked at 42 feet and caused some $300 million in damages.

Most other parts of the Bay Area have escaped all but "nuisance level" flooding, as we discussed earlier, but the areas around Guerneville including Fife Creek are going to see a couple feet of water where there usually isn't any. The video below from CBS 5 shows reporter Jackie Ward standing in knee-deep water in an area above the parking lot for Johnson's Beach.

More photos and video have been appearing on social media, including this one showing a portion of River Road just east of town in Guerneville, near Fife Creek Antiques.

Maybe I'll wait to get coffee

A video posted by Darren Kennedy (@darrenkennedy) on Jan 9, 2017 at 10:19am PST

A few more:

So, #myhood is a #rainforest.... It's kind of amazing ...🌲🌧🌳 #SonomaCounty #WestSonoma #Guerneville #Forestville #Mystical #WaterWorld #RussianRiver #WaterForDays #RiverSheIsFlowing #Flood

A photo posted by Kellie Peach (@peachy.vida) on Jan 9, 2017 at 9:36am PST

35.5 feet and still rising!

A photo posted by Ryan White (@nothinfilms) on Jan 9, 2017 at 9:00am PST

Let the flooding begin.

A photo posted by Mike (@bigtallmike) on Jan 8, 2017 at 7:19pm PST

Walking bridge in the background. #sonomacountyfloods #guerneville

A photo posted by @dordor707 on Jan 8, 2017 at 2:07pm PST

#russianriver #flood #2017 #walkingbridge #mysonomacounty #guerneville #california #ktvu

A photo posted by Larry Boeger (@2talllarry) on Jan 9, 2017 at 1:43pm PST

Previously: Guerneville Residents Evacuated As Russian River Crests; Videos Shows Napa, Truckee Rivers Rising

Water main break causes some flooding in the Moscone Center and unfinished MTA subway. https://t.co/Y3kEfdsgLN pic.twitter.com/zwmgoJpeRi

— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) December 9, 2016

A South of Market water main pipe that reportedly dates back to the 1800s bid this cruel world farewell this morning, flooding area streets and snarling traffic for the Friday commute.

A 12-inch water main pipe that ran beneath Howard Street broke at around 2:40 this morning at Fourth and Howard Streets, a spokesperson with San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission says. Crews responded to the break, which the Chron describes as "a gusher that broke through the asphalt and flooded the intersection with several inches of water and mud," at 3:15 a.m.

Workers "isolated the broken main and are making repairs," KRON 4 reports, but not before water flooded parts of Moscone Center and the under-construction tunnels of the Central Subway, according to NBC Bay Area.

The pipe, which officials say dates back to 1895, likely broke due to old age.

“Right now, [the break] does not appear to be construction-related,” SFPUC spokesperson Charles Sheehan told CBS 5.

“This is an older section of the main, and the likely factor in these cases for older is usually age.”

As you can imagine, traffic in the area is a shambles, with numerous street closures and delays as the crews continue their work throughout the day. As of publication time, Howard Street will remain closed between Third and Fourth streets, with Fourth Street shut down between Howard and Folsom. One lane of traffic remains open on Fourth from Mission to Howard to allow right turns onto Howard, but with repairs expected to take several hours, you'd be wiser to avoid the area all together.

Though a huge earthquake is often mentioned when discussing either San Francisco's utter destruction or the only way one might be able to afford property, it won't be the worst thing to happen to the city, insurer Lloyd's of London says.

Known by ignorant people like me as the company that insured Dolly Parton's boobs for (at current exchange rates) $5.77 million, Lloyd's also just launched the City Risk Index, which determines "the potential impact on the economic output (GDP@Risk) of 301 of the world’s major cities from 18 manmade and natural threats."

SF's top threat, per Lloyd's? A massive stock market crash, which would hit us to the tune of $10.53 billion dollars. Second on the list is "oil price shock" at $6.6 B, and third is "cyber attack," at $5.9 B.

In their "San Francisco Fact Sheet," Lloyd's says that though we have "a 63% chance of experiencing a temblor of magnitude 6.7 or larger in the next 30 years," the financial impact would only be the fourth most severe, at $5.67 billion.

"With periodic episodes of storm surges, flash flooding and inundation from San Francisco Bay, the city has almost as much GDP@Risk from Flood as it does from Earthquake," which why flooding is listed at number five, at $5.48 billion, they say.

The risk assessments are "based on original research by the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School," and "shows how governments, businesses and communities are highly exposed to systemic, catastrophic shocks and could do more to mitigate risk and improve resilience." So, guys, guess that means we all need to get boats.

You can make yourself crazy about SF's various threats of destruction with Lloyd's SF threat page here, and their SF fact sheet here. Have a great weekend!

The National Weather Service issed urban and small stream flood advisories for Contra Costra County. San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda, and San Mateo counties until 3 p.m. A flash flood warning was also issued for Willow Creek in Petaluma. [NWS]

Ah, today should be a citywide holiday, it really really should.

December 5th marks the 74th anniversary of the end of Prohibition, just a tick of the geological clock since that final state (Utah, who else) grudgingly ratified the 21st Amendment.

You couldn't really blame the Prohibitionists for their distaste for John Barleycorn. A flood of cheap corn whiskey in the early years of the nineteenth century changed the way an already soggy American society imbibed -- for the soggier. The forerunner of today's coffee break emerged as the mid-morning whiskey "elevenses", and by 1820 the average Joe was pouring down half a pint a day -- that's over five gallons a year!

In the middle of the century, hatchet-wielding Carrie Nation began to get the upper hand. Temperance societies appeared and abstinence laws started to pass throughout the "civilized" half of the country, but out West, well ... let's just say that as writer Rudyard Kipling strolled off a clipper ship into 1889 San Francisco, his delicate British sensibilities were shocked, shocked! by the way we got our drink on.

-- Tease-O-Rama Meet 'N' Greet: Before the sluts of the weekend-long burlesque convention Tease-O-Rama have you sporting erections via cheeky performances, come meet them for an intimate night of, um, conversation. Also, '60s, '70s, and '80s will flood the dance floor care of the California Kid. Starts at 9 p.m. at Rickshaw Stop; $5.

-- St .Francis Day Animal Blessing: Yeah, this sounds like the best thing, ever. Come get your dog or cat blessed, so you can spend eternity in heaven with your best friend. OK, you're right, no one in SF is going to heaven (if there is one, that is.) 7 p.m. at Episcopal Church of St John the Evangelist; free.

-- Gary Gulman: Part of the emerging trend of comics you want to spoon, Gary Gulman is as funny as, but not as tool-y as, Dane Cook. He goes on at 8 p.m. at Cobb's Comedy Club, $15.

Cock-T's image credit: DJTennessee