The last report I saw on the Weather Channel was up to about 8 inches starting around Mendo Co south to maybe Sonoma Co, over to Redding, with a narrow band down the Sacto Valley, and also a spot around Vallejo. 5 inches for the rest; I think thru Fri.
Been out doing some work on my road, trying to prevent washouts. sometimes the rain gets too intense and the ditch can't handle it all. Then it starts running down the road, washes gravel into the ditch, making a dam, and more gullies get started.
This is the biggest storm I've been in. We hadn't moved up yet, and planned on a 4 day week-end over President's Day, so I took Fri. off. I'm not sure anymore, but I think we were going up Thurs PM, but 101 was closed due to flooding from a storm. We got here Fri PM, left Mon ? noon, had at least 25 inches, cuz the rain gauge overflowed at night.
By the time we got down to Ukiah, 101 was closed by a slide around Hopland, and the highways to the east and west were closed. A few hours after we got there, northbound 101 was closed by another slide. Spent the nite on a friend's floor, made it home Tues noon.
guerneville.towns.pressdemocrat.com
sonomawest.com
The whole story, from NOAA
Listed below are several brief highlights of the flooding, most excerpted from a DWR preliminary data report of the February 1986 storm.
All-time record streamflows were measured on the Russian, Napa, lower Sacramento, American, Cosumnes, and Mokelumne Rivers. The Russian River at Guerneville rose 17 feet above flood stage. At its peak on February 20, the Sacramento River system moved 1.3 million acre-feet of water past the latitude of Sacramento (i.e. the sum of mean daily flows in the Sacramento River and the Yolo Bypass), the greatest volume ever measured at the time. It was also the highest flow ever measured at the time, 665,000 cfs. That amount of water could fill an empty Folsom Lake in less than 19 hours. By February 17th, all weirs on the Sacramento River system were flowing and all but Moulton Weir continued to flow until late March. During the 10 days beginning on February 16th and ending on February 25th, 7.77 million acre-feet of water passed through the Sacramento River system. Folsom, Black Butte, Pardee, and Camanche Reservoirs were filled to capacity and became surcharged (storing more water than the design capacity). The tidal stage at Rio Vista Bridge rose to 12.5 feet - 1.7 feet higher than previously recorded. The daily low tide remained above 11 feet for almost two days. 30,000 acres were flooded in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. On February 20, a Yuba River levee broke and flooded nearly 10,000 acres, jeopardizing 26,000 people in the towns of Olivehurst and Linda. Major highway systems were closed due to flooding, slides, and snowfall on an unprecedented scale. According to a Feb 18th news article in the Los Angeles Times, "Two huge rock slides buried all lanes of Interstate 80 at Truckee, and Caltrans officials said it could be three to seven days before the highway, the major trans-Sierra route in Northern California, would be reopened. Amtrak's westbound California Zephyr passenger train with nearly 500 passengers aboard was stranded in the Sierra Nevada by the rock slide. The travelers aboard the Chicago to Oakland train were reported safe and were returned to Reno once the tracks were cleared, an Amtrak spokeswoman said." Peak inflows to the flood control reservoirs above Sacramento (Shasta, Black Butte, Oroville, Bullards Bar, and Folsom) totaled nearly 800,000 cfs. The maximum releases from these reservoirs totaled 425,000 cfs. Without these flood control reservoirs in place, about one million cfs would have been directed at Sacramento and into a levee and bypass system designed to carry 590,000 cfs. These hypothetical flows would have resulted in massive flooding. Leading up to the February storms, the California Cooperative Snow Surveys forecast for the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, and American Rivers for the 1986 water year called for below-normal runoff. |
