Downpours triggered the release of millions of gallons of raw sewage mixed with rainwater across the region in just two weeks, spilling contaminated water into dozens of rivers, creeks and ultimately into the ocean and San Francisco Bay, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of 88 reports to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.

“Flooded waters contain pathogens,” warned Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board. “If you touch flood waters, you want to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water to make sure that you don’t get yourself exposed.”

When sewage flows into homes and businesses, expensive remediation and decontamination is needed to make them safe again. Overflows also may have dangerous consequences for the environment, because human waste, pharmaceuticals, shampoos and other harmful products are flushed down drains and toilets.

In one incident, the Martinez Refinery Company reported releasing more than six million gallons of storm and wastewater into the Carquinez Strait estuary, which drains into the San Francisco Bay, on Jan. 4, according to state records. The discharge of partially treated “process water” and storm water was necessary to avoid damage to the refinery, the company reported.

Dozens of other smaller incidents were caused by open manhole covers, broken pipes and overwhelmed treatment facilities, from Corte Madera to Woodside and Half Moon Bay to Pleasanton.

State records show that between Dec. 31 and Jan. 3, a total of more than 14 million gallons of sewage were discharged in the San Francisco Bay region, enough to fill 21 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to White. The Jan. 4 storm triggered the release of another 8 million gallons, or 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

More recent releases are still being tallied. Experts say the total volume is likely to be much larger than current estimates because the chaotic circumstances surrounding these emergency flooding situations mean it’s nearly impossible to accurately evaluate the true scale and impact of sewage contamination.

Like bridges or skyscrapers designed to bear certain weights, stormwater management systems are designed within the limits of weather — and can’t handle the intensity of storms that might happen only every decade or two.

In dry times, waste from homes and businesses is whisked immediately away to wastewater-treatment plants, never to be seen, smelled or considered again.

But two weeks of near-constant storms have stressed the system, as heavy rainfall and flooding infiltrate sewer pipes.

“We saw 13 times our average wastewater flows,” said Andrea Pook of East Bay Municipal Utilities District.

Most of the releases were caused when storm water backs up into the streets, flowing up through drains or manhole covers forced open by the overwhelming volume of high-pressure torrents, the reports show.

In Redwood City, a manhole overflow sent polluted water into Borel Creek at a rate of 150 gallons per minute. In San Mateo, 100 to 150 gallons per minute flowed into a storm drain that empties into Polhemus Creek. About 50 gallons a minute were dumped into Sonoma Creek. In Oakland, the overflow of three manholes spilled 25,000 gallons into Lake Merritt.

When a sewage lift station in Daly City overflowed because of stormwater, 35,950 gallons of waste were released into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture of a main treatment line in Moss Beach also caused a spill into the ocean. In Pacifica, an overflowing pump station caused 20,000 gallons to be discharged at Linda Mar Beach.  About 34,000 gallons were released in Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood when a West Bay Sanitary treatment plant couldn’t keep up with the flow.

In Richmond, the West County Wastewater facility pumped sewage directly into the San Francisco Bay, according to a Jan. 11 report.  “It is unknown how long the releasing will be going for,” it said.

Three discharges into Oakland’s San Leandro Creek, Barnhill Marina and an estuary at the foot of Alice Street originated from the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s “overflow structures,” which are designed to discharge water in high-flow conditions.

Farther south, a sewage treatment plant was flooded Friday when the Salinas River rushed over the banks of a levee. Percolation ponds in the city of Templeton also were flooded, sending 300,000 gallons into the river.

Mother Nature is wreaking additional chaos. In Oakland, a tree fell on the sewer line, causing 5,100 gallons of sewage to be released into Sausal Creek. In Crockett, a hillside eroded and collapsed — causing a pipe to break and release 2,700 gallons. When debris blocked a sewer conduit, about 10,000 gallons overflowed into a drain that leads to Oakland’s Lake Temescal.

Records show that a single day — Dec. 31, New Year’s Eve — was responsible for the largest number of reports to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, with 51 discharges in different Bay Area cities.

On that morning alone, there were 15 sewage discharges in 12 cities: Hillsborough, Woodside, San Bruno, Daly City, Pacifica, Burlingame, Half Moon Bay, San Lorenzo, Richmond, Piedmont, Oakland and Daly City.  By midnight, there were an additional 36 discharges in 25 cities: Alameda, Oakland, San Mateo, Richmond, Pacifica, Martinez, El Granada, Montara, Pittsburg, Corte Madera, San Francisco, Antioch, Redwood City, Dublin, San Leandro, Albany, Berkeley, Woodside, Vallejo, Menlo Park, Benicia, Sausalito, Pleasanton, Foster City and Hayward.

The problem isn’t new, said Sejal Choksi-Chugh, executive director of San Francisco Baykeeper, a nonprofit focused on the health of the San Francisco Bay. But the constant rain has exacerbated the issue.

“Over the years, and typically every time it rains, we see sewage spills in the streets and wastewater overflows,” she said. “But the back-to-back-to-back-to-back major storm events is causing a continuous discharge. That’s what is new.”

With continued population growth, the demands on our sewer systems have increased, say experts. Meanwhile, more development leads to more asphalt and cement, so the bulk of the rainfall ends up in our sewage systems.  And our wastewater pipes, often made of clay, are aging, so water infiltrates through cracks and gaps.

The rate at which the urban Bay Area is adapting to these threats is lagging behind the speed at which rain is drowning it, said Choksi-Chugh.  Cities need to invest in replacing pipes and upgrading wastewater treatment systems to increase storage capacity and install more recycling technologies, she said. Cities also could incentivize homeowners to replace old pipes through grants or low-interest loans.

“Our old infrastructure is just not going to be up to snuff,” Choksi-Chugh said. “It’s not going to be able to handle these larger storm events, year upon year. So we really need to be thinking about the future.”

Our city just elected two City Council members using a voting system new to California. The process provides a model for small cities across the state that want to diversify their governing boards without carving up their communities into tiny voting districts.

Under the new system, overwhelmingly approved by Albany voters in 2020, Albany used ranked choice voting at-large to fill multiple seats from one pool of candidates. This method is sometimes called proportional ranked choice voting or PRCV.

Most jurisdictions using ranked choice voting apply it in elections for a single seat. Under that system, voters rank their preferences. If no one wins a first-round majority, the candidate in last place is eliminated, and votes of those who preferred that candidate are reallocated to their second choice. The process is repeated until one candidate has a majority.

Albany is one of two cities in California, along with Palm Desert, to use ranked choice voting in a race for multiple seats. The process is similar to ranked choice voting for a single-seat race. But, since Albany voters were choosing two councilmembers, the winners each needed to clear a 33.3% threshold. In 2024, when voters will fill three seats, the threshold will be 25%.

Academic research tells us that PRCV increases the number of candidates, improves results for candidates and voters of color, and ensures voters have the most representative government.

Albany’s experience offers tangible proof of all these benefits: Five candidates ran, two people of color were elected and more than two-thirds of voters cast a vote for a winning candidate. The passage by more than 70% of Albany’s 2020 ballot measure to use PRCV and its successful first use offer proof for other cities that this system is feasible and beneficial.

Cities potentially in violation of the California Voting Rights Act should take notice of Albany’s example. Right now, cities using traditional at-large elections  in multi-seat elections are increasingly being forced by threat of litigation to divide their cities into districts to ensure more diverse representation. This is because at-large elections generally disadvantage marginalized communities, allowing homogenous blocks of white voters to outvote minority preferences and win all seats.

The solution offered under the law is to cut your town into districts, with at least one district that a historically underrepresented community can reliably win. Albany chose not to go down this route because its voters of color live spread out across the city and it feared a problem that has plagued other small towns forced to districts: a lack of candidates.

PRCV allows small cities such as Albany to keep at-large elections while leveling the playing field for historically marginalized groups. While the law still doesn’t define this method as a safe harbor, it is hard to argue that a method that resulted in two candidates of color gaining office doesn’t achieve the intent of the Voting Rights Act.

It is worth mentioning that Albany’s election was unaffected by the clerical error that has come to dominate the conversation around ranked choice voting in the rest of Alameda County. Not only was the outcome not changed, but Albany’s final tally used the correct counting method that the registrar neglected to use in Oakland.

Instead of focusing the conversation today around the human error of the other elections, we should celebrate the successful implementation of an alternate voting system and look for other jurisdictions willing to try it.

Aaron Tiedemann is mayor of Albany.

Multiple sources told the Bay Area News Group that Price and her new leadership team in their first full week in office moved to place at least three deputy district attorneys, including senior prosecutors, on leave.

Deputy District Attorneys John Brouhard, Butch Ford and Colleen McMahon are among the attorneys Price placed on paid administrative leave — a status that opens the door for their termination.

Additionally, Chief of Inspectors Craig Chew and Assistant Chief of Inspectors Andrea Moreland were fired, according to multiple sources. Unlike prosecutors, inspectors are considered at-will employees and can be terminated without arbitration. The attorneys placed on leave could not be fired until after a two-pronged process, which ends with a ruling by either an administrative law judge or an arbitrator.

On Friday, the mood inside the DA’s office ranged from demoralization to panic. Multiple employees were asked to inform their colleagues, and in some cases their friends, that they were to be placed on administrative leave and other attorneys sat in their offices wondering if they would be next, according to the sources.

Matt Finnegan, an attorney with the local union representing Alameda County prosecutors, said his office is representing the attorneys and will continue to do so “as more slips come in.”

“The biggest downside is that they aren’t going to be able to handle any cases while they’re on administrative leave,” Finnegan said.

It is unclear exactly why the prosecutors were shown the door. A spokeswoman for the DA’s office declined to comment.

However, Price had criticized some of the prosecutors, including Ford, during her 2022 campaign.

Ford, a longtime prosecutor with more than 30 murder trials under his belt, prosecuted an Oakland man, Shawn Martin, who won an appeal of his murder conviction over Ford giving jurors a misleading instruction. Martin was found not guilty on retrial, and later became a volunteer for Price’s campaign.

Martin’s case became a sticking point because just before his second trial, his attorney filed a failed motion to recuse the entire Alameda County DA’s office for alleged rampant misconduct. Just days before Price’s victory in the Nov. 8 election, Martin was identified as a suspect in a nonfatal shooting outside an Oakland bar and remains at large.

The shakeup also comes just days after Price reduced charges against suspected serial killer David Misch, who was being prosecuted by McMahon. Already incarcerated at a state prison hospital for stabbing a woman to death, Misch is facing a new trial in the slayings of two Fremont women and the abduction and killing of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in Hayward, all cold cases from the 1980s.

Price dropped special circumstances charges against Misch, stirring controversy while making good on a campaign promise to review cases where individuals face life without the possibility of parole. It is the first of many such cases Price is expected to evaluate.

The official reason for sidelining Brouhard along with McMahon would be more of a mystery, if not for a common denominator among the two veteran prosecutors. While running for DA, Price held a press conference calling out McMahon, Brouhard and other prosecutors for using their government email accounts to campaign for Nancy O’Malley in 2018. O’Malley — who defeated Price and won re-election that year — announced her retirement in May 2021, opening up the seat for the first time in decades.

Price at the time said the prosecutors used county resources “to gain an unfair advantage” against her. Price and an attorney representing her campaign filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission alleging attorneys violated a state government code prohibiting an independent expenditure committee from coordinating with a candidate — in this case O’Malley.

The Fair Political Practices Commission investigation of the complaint filed by Price remains open, according to the FPPC. Like Ford, McMahon and Brouhard have handled numerous felony trials and are among the office’s most seasoned prosecutors.

Other high-ranking prosecutors who worked under O’Malley have left or are rumored to be eyeing the exit.

Veteran prosecutor Terry Wiley, the O’Malley-backed candidate who ran against Price in the November 2022 election, retired from the office after the election.

One early departure, according to sources, is Assistant District Attorney L.D. Louis, a 20-plus-year prosecutor. Louis is said to have joined the County Counsel’s Office, which oversees legal matters for the civilian side of the county. Louis was most recently the head of the DA’s mental health unit, specializing in policy as well as collaborative courts and alternatives to incarceration.

Top-floor prosecutors and inspectors, like Wiley and Chew, are at-will employees, meaning they could be dismissed without a reason. Virtually all prosecutors, except for assistant district attorneys, are represented by the Alameda County Prosecutors Association and cannot be terminated without cause. Prosecutors began organizing in 2018 and were formalized as a union two years later.

Any prosecutor placed on leave is entitled to a so-called Skelly hearing, which provides employees an opportunity to hear and defend themselves against the employer’s allegations.

In announcing her new leadership team last Friday, Price appointed retired Oakland police Capt. Eric Lewis as chief of inspectors and former Marin County Assistant District Attorney Otis Bruce Jr. and Royl L. Roberts, a Peralta Community College administrator who recently became the district’s general counsel after passing the state bar in July, as her two chief assistant district attorneys.

The eighth and ninth storms to target California since Christmas are on the way this holiday weekend, making for volatile and treacherous conditions from the Bay Area to the Sierra.

The storms themselves won’t be as intense as those that devastated communities in the Santa Cruz mountains and along the beaches over the past week, but with rivers running high and soils already saturated, more flooding and mudslides are predicted across California. The Salinas River in southern Monterey County in particular is expected to flood Friday.

“We definitely appreciate the bounty, but we wish it was spread out over a longer period,” Jeff Lorber, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said Wednesday.

So much snow has fallen already this season that sensors are registering what is considered the “full seasonal snowpack” normally expected by April 1, state climatologist Michael Anderson told reporters during a news briefing Wednesday. It’s still too soon to say whether the snowpack levels will hold until then, but if they do, they could provide ample snowmelt to continue to fill the reservoirs this spring and summer.

Kevin “Coop” Cooper, a longtime Tahoe area ski condition reporter and resort marketing consultant, said the abundant snow is a welcome change after several lean snow years during the state’s drought.

“Right now, I’m looking out of my house and it’s snowing lightly. We’re seeing a nice new amount of snow, temperatures are dropping,” he said Wednesday. “After my 30 years up here, this is one of the best MLK weekends we’ve seen in a long time.”

But that comes with a catch.

Video: California storms drop hail in the Bay Area, cause rockslides, sinkholes and more

With heavy snow and high winds predicted in the Sierra through the weekend, getting to the mountains could be dangerous. Travel in vulnerable areas, especially the Sierra, is not advised from Friday afternoon through Saturday, Lorber said, “when the winds and the rainfall will be at their peak.” The ninth storm is expected to roar in late Sunday through Tuesday.

It’s the kind of warning that weekend warriors amped to hit the Sierra slopes don’t like to heed.

“Fresh snow is like going through butter,” said Andrew Pham, 22, who stopped at Helm of Sun Valley ski shop in San Jose to attach bindings to his new snowboard and is planning to drive up Friday. “When you’re the first one on it, ooh.”

By Wednesday, snowpack levels reached 226% of average for this time of year, beating out 2005 which was 206% of average. All that fresh snow is giving experts reason to feel optimistic that drought conditions that have gripped the Golden State for three years could meaningfully ease by the end of the snowy season.

“The fact that we’re continuing to get this precipitation is just absolutely fantastic,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory near Donner Summit. “It’s still unlikely that we’re going to get completely out of this drought in a single year. But if the storm door stays open… we can put a serious dent in it.”

As of Wednesday, major Northern California reservoirs have registered “impressive gains,” Anderson, the state climatologist, said. But there’s still plenty of catching up to do. Lake Don Pedro east of Modesto is at 69% capacity, for instance, and San Luis Reservoir southeast of the Bay Area, which has risen 35 feet since Dec. 1, is 40% full. The Shasta and Oroville reservoirs, the behemoths of California’s water system, are at 42% and 47% respectively. Lake Oroville has risen more than 90 feet since Dec. 1, surpassing its 2021 and 2022 levels.

“We’ve had quite a deficit because of the drought,” said Molly White, principal engineer with the state water board. “So we’re seeing steep inclines right now in storage, and hope that continues.”

In the Bay Area, Mount Umunhum in Santa Cruz County registered the highest rainfall total in the 24 hours leading to 10 a.m. Wednesday — 1.03 inches. Concord recorded 0.97 inches of rain. About six-tenths of an inch fell in Los Gatos; a quarter-inch fell at Ben Lomond, and two-tenths of an inch fell in San Jose and at the San Francisco International Airport.

In Tahoe, business is booming at ski resorts, despite struggles to keep lifts operational as a series of snow storms continues to plow through the Sierras. So much snow has accumulated in the Sierras already that ski resorts are having to keep track of avalanche risk hour-by-hour.

Mark McLaughlin, the so-called “storm king” who keeps track of Sierra conditions, said he listened to the concussive pounding Wednesday morning of cannons pelting the mountain sides of the Palisades Tahoe resort to trigger avalanches to improve safety before skiers arrive.

“I bet you I heard 20 of them this morning, 20 blasts,” McLaughlin said Wednesday.

John O’Connell, spokesman for Caltrans in the Lake Tahoe area, recommended that skiers from the Bay Area hit the road Thursday if they can, as the storm may arrive earlier Friday than initially expected. They should be prepared to put chains on their car tires unless they have four-wheel or all-wheel drive vehicles with tires designed for rain and snow. Either way, if there are chain controls due to ice and snow, vehicles should drive no faster than 30 mph, he said. And temporary road closures are possible during the snowstorms.

“We recommend people bring blankets, bottled water and snacks, have their phone charged up and a full tank of gas,” O’Connell said. “If we do have to hold traffic, you might be stuck up there in traffic that’s not moving for a little bit. We just want people to be prepared.”

Pham, who was tuning up his snowboard in San Jose on Wednesday, is still hoping to hit that fresh snow.

“But Dad called and said the storm is coming and I shouldn’t go,” he said. “So I guess I’m 50/50. But it would probably be worth it.”

Staff writer Scooty Nickerson contributed to this story.

U.S. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Richmond, recently announced that he successfully included $21.7 million in federal funding for 15 projects to benefit Contra Costa County in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (H.R. 2617).

“My priority in Congress is that I work for you to improve your daily lives and the funding included in this bill will do just that by bolstering public safety, reducing commute times and improving quality of life, increasing access to education and more,” said DeSaulnier.

“I am also delighted that the critical role families in Richmond and West Contra Costa County played in our nation’s World War II home front effort is being recognized. By expanding the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park, visitors will learn more about the East Bay’s trailblazing history,” he said.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, also makes significant investments for families, veterans, and workers by expanding quality, affordable health care, increasing benefits for veterans and delivering critical emergency disaster relief to states. The projects DeSaulnier secured funding for were subject to a strict transparency and accountability process, which is detailed by the U.S. House Appropriations Committee. Funding for these projects is expected to be disbursed in short order.

— U.S. Rep. DeSaulnier’s office

WEST CONTRA COSTA

Garamendi sworn in, represents new district in Congress

U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, was sworn in Monday to representat California’s newly drawn 8th Congressional District, which includes the cities of El Cerrito, Richmond, San Pablo, Hercules, Pinole, Martinez, Suisun City, Pittsburg, Antioch, Vallejo and Fairfield.

“It’s a great honor to continue representing Solano and Contra Costa counties in Congress,” Garamendi said. “My title is ‘Representative,’ and that’s exactly what I will be. My team and I are here to listen and address every need in our community, and I will always lend my voice in service to the people of California’s 8th Congressional District.

“As I was sworn in, I stood with renewed optimism ready to work tirelessly on behalf of the people of Solano and Contra Costa counties to meet the great challenges of our day,” Garamendi concluded.

— U.S. Rep. Garamendi’s office

ALBANY

City seeks applicants to serve on council advisory bodies

Get involved in local government! The city of Albany is seeking applicants to serve on advisory bodies to the City Council. Positions are vacant on all advisory bodies.

Visit the Boards, Commissions & Committees webpage at albanyca.org/government/boards-commissions-committees for more information and to complete the online advisory body application. Please note that the Planning & Zoning and Policing commissions have additional supplemental questionnaires to complete the application.

— city of Albany

To submit an item for our “In brief” section, please email it, at least three days before publication, to njackson@bayareanewsgroup.com. Each item should be 90 to 180 words, include the name of the group or individual to whom it is to be credited and should include a brief headline.

State and local officials on Tuesday began cleaning up from the half-dozen atmospheric rivers that have pummeled California since late December, killing at least 17 people and leaving 96,000 people under evacuation warnings or orders amid the risk of flooding and mudslides. Their work came amid a brief respite from the rain and the wind but with more strong storms expected to arrive later in the week.

Although none of the coming storms are forecast to be as big as the “bomb cyclone” that hit last week, residents have been warned to stay vigilant. While touring the storm and tide-ravaged community of Capitola on Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom cautioned that even a little rain could cause outsized effects due to heavily-saturated soils.

“The magnitude of this is not isolated to smaller communities, it is scaled across the largest state in our union,” Newsom said. “We’re soaked. This place is soaked. And now just more modest amount of precipitation could have as equal or greater impact in terms of the conditions on the ground.”

On Tuesday, nearly every corner of the state had felt the impacts of the recent atmospheric onslaught that caused flooding and myriad downed trees in Northern California, mudslides and a major evacuation in the Southern California community of Montecito and heavy snow across the length of the Sierra Nevada.

California Storms video: Hail in the Bay Area, rockslides, sinkholes and more

On the Central Coast, where some of the storm’s worst effects were felt, a 5-year-old boy died Monday after being swept away in a San Luis Obispo County creek, authorities said. A woman also drowned the same day after driving onto a mile-long section of Central Coast roadway that had been closed due to flooding, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Visiting the Santa Cruz coast, Newsom vowed to provide assistance to Capitola, where huge waves stoked from a “bomb cyclone” last week tore out a section of the historic Capitola Wharf and smashed and flooded a half-dozen beachfront Capitola Village restaurants.

“We’re not walking away,” Newsom said, standing on the town’s waterfront where generations of Bay Area residents have gone to frolic on the sand, dine and drink on seaside patios. From Dec. 31 through Sunday, heavy rains and a devastating tidal event caused at least $28 million in damages to public property across unincorporated Santa Cruz County, said Jason Hoppin, spokesman for Santa Cruz County. In addition, five buildings were red-tagged, and another 131 were deemed significantly damaged but repairable.

That doesn’t include any damage sustained Monday when the San Lorenzo River flooded its banks and sent water rushing into numerous buildings. Nor does it include a line of gusty storms to tear through the county early Tuesday morning, which prompted dozens of 911 calls from people reporting trees falling onto their houses..

Newsom gave no specifics regarding state aid to businesses Wednesday, nor details about funding for rebuilding the wharf. He also did not reveal whether the Seacliff Wharf — a state facility just down the coast that once led to a now-damaged cement-filled ship — would be repaired after damage from the storm. “All that will be determined,” Newsom said.

Around the Bay Area, the true extent of the recent storms began coming into focus Tuesday, even as thunderstorms dropped pea-sized hail and yet more rain.

In Santa Clara County, at least $24 million in damages to public property had been tallied by city and county officials through midday Tuesday — a figure that was expected to evolve as more assessments were completed, a county official said. Much of that tally included damage to roadways — more than a dozen of which remained closed midday Tuesday.

The heavy rains also caused dozens of sewage spills around the Bay Area and other parts of the state as sewage systems became overwhelmed by huge amounts of water pouring into the ground and seeping into pipes. Since New Year’s Eve, for example, at least 22 million gallons of “unauthorized discharges” occurred in the Bay Area, said Eileen White, executive officer for the San Francisco Bay Water Quality Control Board.

About 150 calls a day have streamed into the dispatch center for Bay Area Tree Specialists of late, said Michelle Reulman, the business’ office manager.

“This is a state of emergency,” said John Gill, owner of Majestic Tree Service, just moments after helping to clear a tree that fell on three vehicles and a house Wednesday off Bascom Avenue in San Jose. “You drive every five minutes, and there’s a tree down on a house or the street or the road or it’s flooded.”

In the early morning hours of Tuesday, a falling eucalyptus tree topped a 137-foot tall transmission tower in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood. The weight of the tower brought down three distribution poles as well as power lines and some transformers, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spokesperson Mayra Tostado said in an update posted to Twitter. As a result, about 2,100 customers lost power.

“We’ve brought in additional resources to be able to restore power as quickly as possible to our customers,” Tostado said. “We understand how disruptive it has been to be without power and we’re doing everything we can to turn the lights back on as quickly as possible.”

Tostado said the region saw winds up to 70 mph and 100 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes.

The South Bay took a big punch from Mother Nature today. @PGE4Me responded to an outage in San Jose’s Willow Glen due to a eucalyptus tree knocking down a 137-ft. tall transmission tower. With its weight, it pulled down power lines and poles connected to it. Here’s my report. pic.twitter.com/HJUJm9tqDA

— Mayra Tostado (@PGE_Mayra) January 11, 2023

Many of the trees were felled during an onslaught of thunderstorms Tuesday that knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the Bay Area, while dropping between .25 and 1.25 inches of rain across most of the South Bay, the East Bay and the Peninsula. Much of the Santa Cruz mountains received between .66 and 1.4 inches of rain overnight, pushing three-day storm totals to between 6 and 8 inches of rain across much of the area.

As of 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, 24-hour precipitation totals around the Bay Area included 1.21 inches in San Francisco, 1.18 inches in Oakland, 1.11 inches in Concord,.41 inches in San Jose and .40 inches in Livermore, according to the weather service.

More than 40,000 PG&E customers were without power as of 5 p.m. Tuesday — the majority of them in the South Bay where more than 27,000 customers remained without electricity, according to the utility provider.

To the east across the Sierra Nevada, a remarkable run of snowfall continued to push the state’s snowpack higher — reaching 215% of its average for this date across the state, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The southern Sierra already has received more than it normally gets by April 1, while the northern Sierra is about 75% of the way to that mark.

Another .1 to .25 inches of rain is expected to fall over much of the Bay Area on Wednesday, with higher amounts forecasted to hit the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to the National Weather Service. Some brief showers may hit the region on Thursday or Friday, but the area should remain mostly dry under cloudy skies those days.

Many residents found themselves whiplashed from the see-sawing weather. In Soquel, near Santa Cruz, Roman Bodnarchuk wondered aloud at the next curveball from Mother Nature after a dramatic two weeks of joy and catastrophe.

Just after Christmas, he had finally succeeded in getting his war-refugee parents out of Ukraine — where they lived near a power station under frequent Russian bombardment — and to his rented house by Soquel Creek.

“It’s very stressful,” said Bodnarchuk, 30. “You can imagine how frustrating it was to leave the house when my mom is sick and having to deal with all these situations. Hopefully the house withstands all this damage.”

He couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread at viewing forecasts for additional rain in the coming week

“We’re very worried,” Bodnarchuk said. “It’s been difficult enough already.”

Rick Hurd, Julia Prodis Sulek, Jason Green and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

But Ben has had the most interesting career of all. His entry-level job was at CNN as the “designated John 3:16 tackler.” Let me explain: Back in the 1970s and ’80s, there was a guy called the Rainbow Man who used to insert himself into the picture at televised sports events wearing a multicolored wig and holding a sign reading, “John 3:16” (the Bible passage that reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.”). Ben’s job was to tackle him to get him out of the shot.

His next job was as private secretary for Zsa Zsa Gabor. His third job came when he heard that Vin Scully, the great Dodgers announcer, was having trouble setting up his computer. So Ben, a big baseball fan as well as a techno geek, offered to set it up for him.

That led to a friendship and working relationship that had Ben doing a lot of research and writing for Scully and eventually the whole Dodgers organization, for which he set up the first major league team website. And that led in turn to a career as an ace reporter and West Coast producer for Major League Baseball’s website, MLB.com.

He was a welcome visitor at every ballpark in the country. Let me put it this way: He’s on a first-name basis with Sandy Koufax! It doesn’t get any better than that.

But his home base was always Dodger Stadium, and that’s where Ben found a way to indulge his mischievous streak. In the late innings it’s common for fans in the nosebleed seats to move down to the more expensive seats near the field if they see they’re not being used. But it’s technically against the rules.

So Ben would wander through the stadium, and when he spotted a family doing it — usually a father and his kids — he’d tap the guy on the shoulder and say, “Sir, you and your family will have to come with me.”

By the time they got to the elevator, the guy would be sweating bullets. Ben would push the button, and the elevator would descend to the ground floor. When the door opened, they’d find that they were inside the Dodgers dugout — while the game was still going on! Then Ben would hand each kid a brand-new baseball and a sharpie and say, “OK, kids, go get those autographs!” And all the players would sign.

But it all came to a sudden halt five years ago when he and everyone else his age at MLB were laid off and replaced by people 25 years younger. It was more than the loss of a job; it was the loss of a career. And the lost income created strains on his marriage that led to divorce.

And now comes more bad news: Ben has been diagnosed with middle-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Naturally, his brothers are rallying around him (with considerable help from their significant others). They’re trying to provide not only for his medical treatment, but also his living expenses for the rest of his life.

“In the meantime, we’ve created a project for Ben to work on to keep him focused and energized,” says Jon. “He not only loves baseball; his other big passion is sports movies. We’re creating a sports movie website and database with Ben’s old boss for him to watch films, research and provide information that will be part of this website’s database. We shipped him about 40 sports movies last month, and there will be a lot more to come.”

The website is scheduled to go online in April. They’ve also set up a GoFundMe campaign (gofund.me/e5ff381f) to help pay his bills. I know their mom would be proud of all three of them. I sure am.

Martin Snapp can be reached at catman442@comcast.net.

The latest atmospheric river-fed storm is expected to pack damaging winds and drop several more inches of rain over much of the Bay Area — a double-whammy that forecasters say should peak Monday morning and linger through Tuesday. Even more storms are forecast to make landfall beginning later this week — threatening to further saturate soils during one of the Bay Area’s most waterlogged stretches in recent years.

On Sunday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom implored Californians to avoid driving through flooded roadways and to prepare for even more water in the near future — noting that 12 people had died over the last week and a half due to storms across the state.

“Use your common sense,” Newsom said at a press conference. “Don’t test fate… just a foot of water and your car’s floating. So it’s really important that people are mindful, and again, just use their common sense.”

The National Weather Service issued a flood warning for areas along the Guadalupe River above the Almaden Expressway in San Jose. The river is expected to reach its flood state of 9.5 feet by 9 a.m. Monday before cresting at 11.5 feet at about 4 p.m. that day.

A flood watch also exists through Tuesday for almost the entire Bay Area. Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol could reach its flood stage of 9 feet on Monday morning before cresting that afternoon, just shy of its 14-foot, 9-inch record. Also at risk of topping their banks were Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona in Alameda County and the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County.

On Sunday afternoon, Santa Clara County officials issued evacuation warnings — essentially, advisements to be prepared to leave a moment’s notice — to people living in the watershed areas of the Uvas Reservoir and Pacheco Pass River Basin, due to flooding concerns. The warnings are impacting roughly 1,600 people, according to the county.

“This is going to be dangerous,” said Brayden Murdock, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

Updated forecast rainfall totals for round 2, expected to begin tonight between 10 pm and midnight. The heaviest rain will occur between 4 am and 4 pm Monday. Slight lowering of totals from the Bay Area northward and southern valleys. More details in follow up tweet.#CAwx

1/x pic.twitter.com/zs2HzaehAH

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023

Standing under a break in the clouds on Sunday in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood, Becky Luong expressed fatigue at the unrelenting pace of storms. Her home’s garage in the Portola neighborhood was flooded with about an inch of water during Wednesday’s storm — ruining several pairs of shoes stored down there and leaving damaged a few bags of concrete.

“I’ve never experienced such a big storm like this,” said Luong, who has lived in the city for close to three decades. “It is the wind that makes it worse. This is different. I got scared.”

“I’m tired,” she added, about the recent wet weather. “I’m so grateful to see the sun today.”

Nearby, Nick Bulley waited in line for workers to fill his car with sandbags to protect his house in the hilly Twin Peaks neighborhood. The backyard and first floor of his newly renovated home were flooded during the New Year’s Eve storm with an inch of water, likely causing thousands of dollars in damage. On Sunday, he ran a dehumidifier to suck up all the moisture and limit the cost of repairs.

“This was just an unusual event,” Bulley said. “We weren’t prepared. We didn’t have sandbags. Now we’re making sure we have something to at least toss in front of the doors.”

The heaviest downpours should begin to subside by midday Monday, Murdock said, though chances for additional precipitation should linger through Tuesday. Most of the Bay Area — including San Francisco and Oakland — could see 2 to 3 inches of rain by Tuesday, the weather service said. San Jose is expected to see a little more than 2 inches from this storm.

The heaviest rainfall should fall over the waterlogged Santa Cruz Mountains, where 5 to 7 inches of rain is expected, with a few places seeing as much as 8 inches. To the south, the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Big Sur coast could see 8 to 12 inches of rain in some spots.

Winds of 25 to 35 mph are expected across much of the Bay Area’s lower-lying regions, with gusts potentially hitting 60 mph, the National Weather Service said while issuing a high wind warning. Along the coast and the Bay Area’s peaks, forecasters are expecting winds of 35 to 50 mph and gusts of up to 80 mph.

“This is also going to be a wind event,” said Murdock, adding that “when you do have strong winds after seeing plenty of moisture in the soil, you can see trees fall.”

The storm marks the latest atmospheric river to drench Northern California over the last couple of weeks, whipsawing the region from one of its driest three-year runs in recorded history to a state of perpetual flood risk. Oakland, for example, has received 15.84 inches of rain since Dec. 1 — almost all of it in the last two weeks. That’s more than two-thirds of the 22.89 inches of rain it normally gets in a calendar year.

Still, even though the recent wet weather has begun to alleviate drought conditions across Northern California, experts say even more moisture is needed to put an end the region’s historic drought. Water levels at some of the state’s largest reservoirs — including Lake Shasta, Lake Oroville and Trinity Lake — remain below historical averages for this time of year, even though some have started to tick upward in recent weeks.

He said that federal resources have been mobilized to help the National Weather Service’s forecasts. Five Air Force C-130s and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration aircraft are flying over the Pacific Ocean – reaching as far as Hawaii – to gather data on the coming storms.

“These next storms are really going to start seeing some flood stages be reached,” said Anderson, during a call with reporters Saturday. “There’s a lot to keep an eye on and a lot to track.”

For more on the latest emergency warnings, go to aware.zonehaven.com.

High Wind Warning has been issued for our region starting tonight at 8 PM into Monday 4 PM. Expect southerly winds near 20 to 35 mph with gust up to 60 mph in the valley locations and 35 to 50 mph with gust up 80 mph along the coast and highest peaks. #CAwx #highwind pic.twitter.com/VbzaXV22ez

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) January 8, 2023

This latest storm is an atmospheric river, essentially a giant conveyor belt of water in the sky and moisture-rich maelstrom rolling in from the Pacific Ocean to fill California’s reservoirs and blanket the Sierra Nevada with snow, which has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding and mudslides.

By the scale used to measure the strength and impact of such weather systems, this torrent is a Category 3 out of 5. The scale meteorologists use bases the five categories of intensity on the duration of the tempest and the magnitude of water content called the Integrated Water Vapor Transport (IVT).

Wednesday’s atmospheric river is also being labeled a “bomb cyclone” for its rapid strengthening off-shore. That term describes an area of low pressure that intensified by 24 millibars within 24 hours, with millibars being a unit of measurement for atmospheric pressure.

Grounded from lofty definitions and weather science meanwhile are the residents grappling with surviving the wind-whipped deluge. Below are photos documenting their experiences. While we encourage your safest preparation and response to this emergency, if you have any visuals to share, please email photovideo@bayareanewsgroup.com.

During their Dec. 20 meeting, El Cerrito City Council thanked Councilmember Janet Abelson, who is retiring after 23 years of public service, including having served as the city’s mayor five times during her record six terms as a councilmember.

While in office, Abelson championed change on a number of key issues. Abelson’s primary legislative slant is improving accessibility in all modes of transportation; after her retirement, Abelson will continue to serve on a number of transportation committees, such as the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee and Contra Costa Transportation Authority.

A wheelchair user since 1984, Abelson does not drive and relies completely on public transportation. With firsthand experience of the city’s infrastructure, Abelson knew the changes that needed to occur. While in office, Abelson served as a voice for her community, never forgetting the disadvantaged and disabled in her advocacy. Thanks to Abelson, low-income students in West Contra Costa County can get free bus passes through the Student Bus Pass Program.

When asked about a piece of legislation she’s most proud of, without hesitation, Abelson mentioned the 2014 San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan, in which she played a key role in pressing for a number of key divisions, including reducing parking requirements, expanding maximum height limitations for buildings and optimizing the Environmental Impact Review processes to enable future development.

“San Pablo Avenue doesn’t look the same as it did 10 years ago. There’s a lot more housing now — multifamily housing in particular — which is a very important thing because it feeds into transit accessibility,” said Abelson. “We updated the city’s transit policy for this corridor, which means that we will continue to expand public infrastructure in the future.”

— Tripepi Smith

ALBANY

City seeks applicants to serve on council advisory bodies

Get involved in local government! The city of Albany is seeking applicants to serve on advisory bodies to the City Council. Positions are vacant on all advisory bodies.

Visit the Boards, Commissions & Committees webpage at albanyca.org/government/boards-commissions-committees for more information and to complete the online advisory body application. Please note that the Planning & Zoning and Policing commissions have additional supplemental questionnaires to complete the application.

— city of Albany

BERKELEY

Help build community center for local unhoused youth

Sustainable Housing at California (SHAC) is an interdisciplinary team of UC Berkeley students working with Youth Spirit Artworks (YSA), a Berkeley-based nonprofit that provides art jobs and job training programs to unhoused youth to be an environmentally sustainable part of the solution to the Bay Area’s housing crisis.

SHAC is designing and building the Sustainability, Education and Arts Development (SEAD) Center that will anchor the expansion of YSA’s existing Tiny Home Empowerment Village for unhoused youth to house 20 to 30 additional local youth. Based on desires voiced by current Tiny Home Empowerment Village residents and input from industry experts, the SEAD Center will provide a venue for youth to study, socialize and receive professional development services while incorporating sustainable technologies and practices to reduce its environmental impact.

SHAC needs the public’s help to build the next Tiny House Empowerment Village and SEAD Center. Please support this project by donating or sharing SHAC’s GoFundMe campaign (gofund.me/7e838641) to help cover construction and material costs to bring critical housing and recreational space to unhoused youth in Oakland.

— SHAC

To submit an item for our “In brief” section, please email it, at least three days before publication, to njackson@bayareanewsgroup.com. Each item should be 90 to 180 words, include the name of the group or individual to whom it is to be credited and should include a brief headline.