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.
Current San Francisco status: Market Street is now known as Lake Market Street pic.twitter.com/NsmUSUGIyK
— Tony “Abolish ICE” Arcieri 🦀 (@bascule) December 7, 2019
@MarkTamayoKTVU - Van Ness Muni Metro Station pic.twitter.com/HNUMTO1JpZ
— Brian Sheehan (@sheehanb) December 8, 2019
UPDATE: There is no #subwaysvc between West Portal & Van Ness Stations. The #MOceanView & #LTaraval Lines are being interlined. #TThird switching back at Embarcadero. Bus Shuttles en route from West Portal to Embarcadero. @SFBART mutual aid from Balboa to Embarcadero Stations. https://t.co/aHZFUanE1b
— SFMTA (@sfmta_muni) December 8, 2019
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.
LOOK: Torrential downpour drenched San Francisco, prompting The Weather Service to issue a rare flood warning for the city pic.twitter.com/LS2t4UizDO
— QuickTake by Bloomberg (@QuickTake) December 8, 2019
San Francisco is flooding #flood @KCBSRadio @KTVU @KGOdesk pic.twitter.com/1kbCa0Q5vJ
— Zoey Tur🚁 (@ZoeyTur) December 8, 2019