Those attending the District 1 event will have the opportunity to hear from Chief Ford and meet several of the city’s officers. The two-hour community forum will be at Contra Loma Estates park at 1203 Sycamore Drive.

Earlier in the day on Sycamore Drive, police responded to calls about a possible shooting near Peppertree Way just after 10:45 a.m. A man, who suffered at least one gunshot wound, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. It was the city’s first homicide of the year.

The police department plans to hold community forums in each district, rotating them throughout the year.

Pittsburg man Damond Lazenby Jr. disappeared Jan. 1 after his green Volkswagen was found abandoned with its engine running near a Highway 4 overpass at Port Chicago Highway in Concord.

After family members reported his absence, they marshalled multiple search parties to canvass roadways around the region up to Jan. 7, when Lazenby’s body was found on an embankment near the shoulder of eastbound Hwy. 4 between Port Chicago Highway and Willow Pass Road.

On Monday, the CHP’s Golden Gate Division posted a statement to social media saying that investigators believe Damond Lazenby Jr. was struck by the right front part of a dark-colored sedan whose driver fled the scene.

Investigators have yet to share additional details about Lazenby’s death, pending results of an autopsy.

Anyone with information may call the CHP’s 24/7 tip line at 707-917-4491.

Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.

For this point in the water year — which starts in October — the totals are around twice the average at many Bay Area spots. November was drier than normal, and December brought about double the average rainfall.

The totals below are from Dec. 1 to Jan. 16 at National Weather Service stations.

The site of the greatest reading, Uvas Canyon, is at 1,100 feet elevation near the Casa Loma fire station, about 2 miles east of Loma Prieta.

To the south, Mining Ridge, at 3,288 feet elevation in Big Sur, has recorded 84.16 inches from Dec. 1 to this week.

Read more: 35 key figures that sum up the atmospheric river blitz

National Weather Service predictions showed calm, chilly air Tuesday in the Bay Area. Highs in the mid-50s were consistent throughout, with San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland each expected to top out at 55 degrees. Overnight temperatures could drop to the mid-30s, however, accompanied by calm winds and a dry, rainless night.

Those showers should diminish by Thursday, however, as temperatures were forecast to drop to highs in the low 50s before slowly rising to the high 50s by Saturday, giving the Bay Area its first completely dry weekend of 2023.

The declaration provides the cities with access to federal, state and county storm resources.

In Antioch, City Manager Cornelius Johnson declared a state of emergency on Thursday and the City Council approved the proclamation a day later.

Antioch officials on Friday estimated costs associated with the local emergency at nearly $4 million, which does not include the weekend’s storm that partially closed Deer Valley Road and caused damage elsewhere.

Antioch also canceled the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service in anticipation of more storm cleanup work that would be needed, Mayor Lamar Thorpe said in a video statement on Facebook on Thursday.

“While we’ve properly managed the response to these unprecedented storms, they have not been without damage to critical infrastructure like Delta Fair Boulevard or the Fulton Shipyard,” Thorpe said. “At this point, conservatively speaking, we estimate about $4 million in damages. I know that figure will continue to grow as more storms hit our area.”

In Pittsburg, meanwhile, City Manager Garrett Evans declared a state of emergency on Jan. 11 as staff worked in shifts to respond to flooding, downed trees, road damages, and other health and safety emergency calls. Estimated costs were not yet available.

On Monday morning, Harbor Street was still closed from Yosemite Drive to Greystone Place, where water flooded the street and sidewalks and some house and apartment evacuations took place as rain pummeled the area overnight, filling up nearby Kirker Creek. Residents of some 19 homes and four units in the Fox Creek Apartment complex were asked to evacuate and 12 persons were rescued via boat, according to Evans.

In an online statement late Monday, Evans said public works crews will be onsite through the week “to monitor and address water levels to ensure public safety.”

“With the current break in the weather, the water in Kirker Creek is expected to recede below maximum capacity,” he said.

In addition to flooding streets, the extreme weather compromised a 20-foot-high retaining wall and downed four 30-foot trees in Pittsburg, according to the staff report.

Check back for updates.

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.”

Located just north of Antioch and south of Rio Vista, Brannan Island State Recreation Area is part of a maze of waterways and marshes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta long popular for boating, fishing, swimming and camping.

And though its picnic tables and campsites surrounded by mighty oaks and towering eucalyptus trees sit empty now, Clint Elsholz, state Diablo Range District acting superintendent, knows that the park will soon be filling up.

“(Since the pandemic), parks have seen a big spike in attendance,” said Elsholz, who oversees the 336-acre site. “People want to be outdoors, so I expect the campgrounds to be very popular over the summer.”

Last March, American Land & Leisure, which operated the park since 2013, opted not to renew its lease with State Parks, effectively shutting down the park much to the dismay of its longtime users. Elsholz said park officials scrambled to reassign workers and reopen the popular boat launch last June, but only on weekends, while they looked for a concessionaire to replace the Utah property management company.

Elsholz thanked the public for its patience while waiting for a new operator. He added that he was “excited for the new partnership” with Park Delta Bay of Isleton to bring camping and day-use opportunities back to Brannan Island. Reservations for the 136 campsites – both tent and RV hookups in five different areas and a rustic cabin – were being taken as of the first of the year.

Park Delta Bay operates an RV and tiny house resort just down the road, about six miles from Brannan Island State Recreation Area, and Esholz said he believed the company would do well restoring the state recreation area, which first opened in 1952.

“He (owner Eric Chiu) has vision,” Elsholz said, noting that adding a bait store – the first ever at the site – should be a welcome amenity for visitors.

Hap’s Bait and Tackle, a longtime Rio Vista store, was forced to close recently and will be reopening at the park.

“He (Chiu) is going to put it in as part of the experience at the park, and that’s the kind of vision that will bring people out,” Elsholz said. “It’s pretty exciting. It’s something that’s important to the locals.”

Chiu could not be reached for comment but his park managers Chris and Billie Logan, who are doing much of hands-on work sprucing up the park, were optimistic about its future and said getting the bait shop up and running was “the first order of business.” Chris Logan estimated it would open “in a couple of weeks.”

The couple managed the park for three years before leaving last spring, but were excited to return when the new operator was found.

“I came back because I know so much about the park and I knew it was the right time to come in to try to get things done that I thought needed to be addressed,” said Chris Logan who now lives with his wife inside the park. “I knew I could get a fresh start and get things going.”

Besides cleaning up debris, landscaping and other minor maintenance, Logan said the park will have to clean up the beach in the Seven Mile Slough area for the summer, when operators expect to add lifeguards and paddle boats for rent. The beach will be a big draw, he said.

“People always come in and say, ‘Where’s the beach?’ ” Logan added. “It’s tide-oriented. When the tide is in, there’s no beach, when the tide’s out there is.”

Elsholz said over the years the beach has become overgrown with weeds but park officials will work to clear it.

“We have some Himalayan blackberry that’s crept in there that we want to take out and expand it,” he said of the beach. “It’ll still accommodate swimming – I don’t think we’re going to have to dredge – but we’re going to do some vegetation management on the site.”

“Boaters drive 60 to 100 miles to come here because it’s one of the nicest boat launches (in the delta area),” Logan said, noting they can launch up to 10 boats at a time.

“It’s nice and wide, and the parking is plentiful,” Elsholz added.

You don’t have to convince longtime boater Doug McArthur of Stockton about that. McArthur has run charter fishing boats out of Brannan Island for more than a decade and was delighted when the park fully reopened in December.

“There’s a lot of private boat launches, but this is one of the few public ones in the area,” he said. “There are days on the weekends during the prime fishing season when you can’t find anything less than probably 80 to 100 boat trailers in the parking lot.”

Even on a busy day, though, McArthur said he’s never had to wait for a launch “because there’s so much space.”

“That’s what we love, and the fact that it (the park) sits between the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers,” making it easy to fish either one depending on conditions, he said.

“I can pull out of that spot and go left or right and I’m pretty much right on top of where I want to fish without having to go burn a bunch of fuel down the river,” McArthur said.

If you don’t have a boat, like to camp or hang out at the beach, Elsholz noted Brannan Island has a network of trails, bird watching and “many ways to connect with nature.”

“I just think it’s overlooked,” he said. “I think that the delta is overlooked by a lot of people.”

Online camping reservations for Brannan Island State Recreational Area are available on ReserveCalifornia.com.

Nearly half of the almost 52,000 people who called 211 — the nationwide social services hotline — in six Bay Area counties last year needed housing help, from a place to shelter for the night to assistance paying their rent so they wouldn’t be evicted. That’s up from about a third the year before.

The surge in demand, which came as the last statewide COVID-19 eviction protections expired and inflation soared, is overwhelming the Bay Area’s resources, meaning many people in need are turned away or left to languish on long waitlists.

“We’ve always received calls about housing needs, but the past quarter especially we’ve been seeing thousands of our neighbors reach out about housing,” said Clare Margason, 211 director for United Way Bay Area. “Our residents are struggling to pay their rent, to meet basic needs.”

United Way recently released its first public, online database tracking the number and types of calls it receives at the 211 centers it operates for San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Marin, Napa and Solano counties. (The call centers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties are run by different organizations.) Margason hopes the data will help make their services stronger by identifying gaps in resources.

After housing at 47%, food was the second-most needed resource last year, comprising nearly 17% of requests, followed by help with health care, at 13%. Requests for help with mental health or substance abuse, at nearly 7%, also ticked up despite the launch last summer of 988 — a nationwide mental health crisis hotline.

Pleas for housing help have soared in Alameda County as well, jumping up 27% last year, according to Eden I&R, which operates the county’s 211 line locally. The call center, which keeps an extensive housing database, sometimes can refer callers directly to affordable housing units or shelter beds, or help them get on waitlists. Because of the bureaucratic nature of the county’s affordable housing system, 211 operators often have to refer callers to other resource centers where they can begin a complicated screening process to determine if they are eligible for help.

“There’s never enough,” said Eden I&R Executive Director Alison DeJung. “It can be pretty common that a caller will call and there’s no shelter bed available.”

Because the need is so great, her team launched a new “housing specialty unit” in October designed to help callers hold onto their housing and avoid ending up on the street. They hired three employees specially trained in tenant rights to help callers who are at risk of eviction or struggling to pay rent. The Bay Area’s other 211 call centers are working on similar experimental programs.

United Way outsourced its 211 call centers to Southern California in 2012 due to financial challenges and now calls from San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Napa, Marin and Sonora counties are answered in Ventura County.

In Santa Clara County, there has been such a desperate need for emergency shelter that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the county launched a separate hotline just to connect people to beds. Dubbed the Here4You hotline — 408-385-2400 — the number is now operated by the Bill Wilson Center, which runs shelters and housing programs in the county. Before the recent storms wreaked havoc on the region, the hotline received about 300 calls per day, said CEO Sparky Harlan. Now, that’s up to between 400 and 450. There are so many people in need, that the call center is constantly turning people away.

“We’re probably able to place a third of the people right now that are calling,” Harlan said.

The need is similarly high in Contra Costa County, where the number of calls specifically related to evictions nearly doubled — increasing from 681 in 2021 to 1,196 last year.

Tom Myers, executive director of the nonprofit Community Services Agency in Mountain View, isn’t surprised by the spike in 211 requests for housing. He’s seen a similar increase at his own agency — both in the number of people who need help paying rent and in those who are trying to claw their way out of homelessness. Unable to keep up with demand, his team is forced to put people on waiting lists. The average wait for rental assistance is between two and four weeks, he said.

“Unfortunately, I think we’ve known for some time that we have a group of people who are living in incredibly housing insecure environments,” Myers said. “And that number increased. It multiplied during COVID. And it’s not going away. Until the Bay Area solves its affordable housing crisis, we are going to continue to have this problem.”

Jaden Rashada might play for the University of Florida, or he might not.

It remains unclear after a report surfaced on Wednesday that the five-star quarterback wanted out of the letter of intent he signed last month to play for Florida.

“Honestly, it’s all been hearsay,” Pittsburg coach Charlie Ramirez said Friday night about the whirlwind of speculation that began when On3 Sports reported that Rashada asked to be released from his Florida commitment.

Rashada’s dad, Harlen, denied the On3 Sports report, telling Brandon Huffman of 247Sports that his son hadn’t sought a release from the letter of intent.

Harlen added, “We’re working through some things right now with Florida and hoping that they get resolved soon.”

What they’re possibly working through is the fallout from a $13 million Name, Image and Likeness deal that the Athletic reported fell apart, citing a program source close to the situation.

“I think the stuff that Harlen said in Brandon Huffman’s article is probably the most accurate from what we’re hearing,” Ramirez said.

Rashada, 19, and his father did not reply to messages left by the Bay Area News Group.

Fair or not, the quarterback who led Pittsburg to a state championship game last fall is a symbol of the wild frontier that the NIL era has become since the NCAA implemented an “interim” policy in June 2021 that allowed athletes to be paid for endorsement deals.

Last summer, Rashada reportedly agreed to a $9.5 million NIL deal when he orally committed to the University of Miami.

Rashada denied those reports, saying on social media, “Any report regarding my commitment to the University of Miami is false unless I was interviewed directly. All reports of my decision involving a NIL deal {are} inaccurate. I would never make a life/career choice for any monetary value.

“As I stated in my commitment live on TV I chose Miami because of the relationship I have with the coaches, players, and the direction the program is headed.”

In November, Rashada flipped to Florida.

He posted on Twitter at that time, “Over the past few months, I’ve been weighing my options heavily. I have dreamed of playing SEC football since I was a little kid. After a lot of prayer, conversations with my family and those close to me, I have decided to change my commitment and play for the University of Florida.

“I have tremendous respect for Miami and what they are going to accomplish there but I have watched this season and coach (Billy) Napier and his (Florida) team are building something very special in The Swamp and I want to be a part of it.”

In December, Rashada signed with Florida.

After the signing, Napier spoke enthusiastically about his future quarterback.

“I just think there’s a high level of trust on both ends there,” Napier said. “Can’t compliment Jaden enough relative to who he is as a person, as a leader, his character. Jaden is a guy who came here and fell in love with the University of Florida and really connected with a lot of people here. It was sincere.”

Back at Pittsburg, the football community is as much in the dark about the latest chapter in the Rashada saga as others.

“As everybody else is reading it, we’re reading it as well,” said Ramirez, who was promoted last month from defensive coordinator to head coach after Victor Galli retired.

Rashada finished his coursework at the high school in December and was planning to be an early college enrollee.

The deadline to enroll at Florida was Friday night.

It is not yet known whether Rashada registered for classes. But even if he didn’t, Ramirez said the quarterback could go the traditional route and join the team in the summer.

No matter how it unfolds, the Pittsburg community wants the best for its former star player.

“Great kid,” Ramirez said. “Great personality. Great character. We feel bad for what Jaden has to be going through. He does a pretty good job of keeping things that are being said on social media at a distance. He’s done the best any kid could possibly do in handling this ever since really the Miami commitment and even going from the Miami commitment to the Florida commitment and everything in between. He’s done as good as any kid could possibly do.”

The Bethel Island woman was arrested Jan. 11 on suspicion of murder solicitation, records show. She was taken into custody at her home around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, according to jail records.

According to authorities, the alleged murder plot came about after the 54-year-old grew frustrated with how her divorce case was going. Court records show the woman and her wife had each taken domestic violence restraining orders out against the other as the 2022 divorce case unfolded.

Police say that the 54-year-old allegedly offered another woman up to $30,000 to murder her estranged wife. And they allege she had a specific plan in mind: to have the would-be hitwoman steal a car and run the ex-wife over as she walked home from a corner bar.

Part of her plan, authorities said, was to make it look like a routine car accident or random hit-and-run crash.

On social media, the woman describes herself as an “animal lover” who is “following Jesus.” She once ran a local antique shop and a pet dog sitting business.

As of Friday, she was not charged and remained in a Contra Costa jail lieu of $1 million bail. It is unclear if she has retained an attorney.

A spokesman for the Contra Costa District Attorney said law enforcement has not yet asked for charges to be filed against her. Prosecutors have until Tuesday morning to file criminal charges or she will be released from custody.

No one else has yet been arrested, and the investigation remains open, authorities say.