As rain continues to fall across the Bay Area, Wednesday morning has brought a flood advisory, reports of mudslides in Los Gatos, major public transit delays including a flooded Van Ness Station, reports of flooding in Noe Valley and the Outer Mission where several cars got submerged in deep water on Cesar Chavez (see below), and water in the roadway on 101 in southern Marin County. Also, last night's storm brought with it plenty of thunder and lightning (see video above), including reports of over 100 lightning strikes, mostly in the North Bay, as CBS 5 reports. And, as the Chron adds, hail was reported in Point Reyes.
Three cars became stuck and half-submerged early this morning on Cesar Chavez beneath the Potrero Avenue overpass, including a Green Cab whose driver told ABC 7 that the water rose up on them so quickly there was nothing they could do. All three drivers had to climb out of their cars in chest-deep water to escape, as you can see in the video below.
San Francisco saw 1.56 inches of rain yesterday, making it the wettest day of the year so far, but some parts of the Bay Area saw much more than that.
Per CBS:
Several North Bay communities saw impressive amounts of rain in a short amount of time, including Olema Valley (.96 inches in an hour), Bodega Bay (.34″ in an hour) and Petaluma (.18 in an hour.) Over a six-hour span, 2.16 inches of rain fell in Olema Valley and 1.01 inches fell in Petaluma.
Per KTVU:
The pre-dawn 24 hour rain totals included 4.05 inches in Ben Lomond nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains, 2.52 inches near Clayton and a much needed 2.95 inches at the drought-starved Lexington Reservation.
Power outages also affected at least 2600 households in San Francisco.
Heavy rain is expected to continue through Wednesday with isolated thunderstorms, and more rain and thunder will be lingering through Friday.
Is this enough to say that the drought is over? Of course not. But it should be noted that Californians being thrilled with the rain made the front page of the New York Times website today, along with the reminder that this particular storm is still just a drop in the bucket of what we need.
It has, though, been a long time since we saw a December storm like this, right?
