About 30,000 Bay Area resident are without powerful, one of the results of a powerful Pacific storm that continues to rumble through Northern California today.
Throughout the weekend, heavy rains and high winds have flooded roads, soaked holiday shoppers and snuffed out power to hundreds of thousands of customers. At times, 50- to 60-mph wind gusts toppled trees and snapped power lines.
The remnant of a typhoon that hit Guam last week with 150 mph winds cut power to more than half a million Pacific Gas & Electric customers throughout Northern California, including more than 300,000 in the Bay Area, said utility spokesman Jeff Smith.
The worst of the storm struck Saturday afternoon, though rain, thunder and lightning continued into the night. A slightly weaker storm is expected to begin this afternoon and intensify tonight and off-and-on showers are likely throughout the week, said National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Waddington.
49er fans should probably bring their rain gear for this afternoon's 1:15 game at Candlestick Park, Waddington said, and expect showers by the end of the game.
Shopping in rain
Heavy rains sent holiday shoppers scurrying for cover Saturday.
``I'm going to have to swim to my car,'' quipped Linda Hernandez as the east San Jose resident emerged from Eastridge Mall in a downpour with an armful of shopping bags.
The storm system that moved in Friday dumped as much as 9 inches of rain in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 48 hours and more than 11 inches in Sonoma County, said weather service meteorologist Steve Markkanen.
The storm packed steady winds of 20 to 30 mph, and the highest gust was 81 mph, recorded at a remote station on the Sonoma County coast between Guerneville and Fort Ross, Markkanen said.
The storm cut power to 20,000 in San Jose, 46,000 in Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Altos and Mountain View, 40,000 in San Francisco and the Peninsula, and 17,000 in the Santa Cruz area, said Jeff Smith, a spokesman for PG&E. There were still more than 63,000 Bay Area customers without power Saturday night, he said.
Ginny Kinkead of Saratoga lost power at noon as powerful winds rocked her Pike Road home.
``It was very fierce, very scary and sort of exciting,'' Kinkead said. ``You could feel the whole house shaking. I was trying to light a fire and couldn't get it going because the wind kept coming down the chimney so hard it blew ashes out into the room.''
By evening, nibbling cold cheese and crackers by candlelight, Kinkead decided to go see ``My Big Fat Greek Wedding'' at a movie theater with a generator and warm popcorn.
The storm caused some interruptions with television station KNTV's reception.
PG&E fielded 3,400 technicians, many on overtime or called in from outside the Bay Area, to handle outages, advising customers in cities to expect waits up to 24 hours and longer in remote areas.
An urban and small stream flood advisory was in effect throughout the Bay Area until 9 p.m. for possible ``nuisance'' flooding, Markkanen said. A flash flood advisory was issued in Sonoma County, where the Russian River rose 20 feet in a day to crest six feet below flood stage, Markkanen said. A flash flood watch was in effect until 9 a.m. today throughout Santa Cruz County.
A high surf advisory remains in effect through Tuesday for waves up to 25 feet or more. No problems from heavy seas were reported Saturday.
River rising
In Felton, where the fire station rain gauge showed 9 inches of rain, residents along the San Lorenzo River were keeping a wary eye on the banks as muddy water surged downstream.
``If it gets to the red reflector, that's when I move on out,'' said Maura Zink, 43, pointing to a mark on an oak tree along the riverbank.
The storm caused moderate, scattered damage including collapsing part of a Rite Aid drugstore roof in Santa Cruz.
In San Francisco, strong wind gusts sent scaffolding on a seven-story building crashing to the ground shortly after noon. A pedestrian suffered a broken leg as a result of the flying debris. Several windows in nearby buildings were shattered and five cars were damaged, said police Sgt. Steve Roche.
It was pretty messy elsewhere in the city, too. Fallen trees straddled busy corridors such as Van Ness Avenue and Haight Street, and PG&E workers kept busy responding to reports of downed power lines.
Along the Peninsula, dispatchers in Mountain View and Palo Alto found themselves answering a lot of calls about trees toppled by high winds.
``There's trees all over the place,'' one Palo Alto dispatcher said.
Playin' in the rain
Along University Avenue in Palo Alto, members of the Los Trancos Woods Community Marching Band took it all in stride. As the rain came down in horizontal sheets, they sought shelter for themselves and their brass instruments under the marquee of the Stanford Theatre.
Costumed in red-and-white Santa hats, they cheerily played and sang Christmas favorites. In their rush to get out of the storm, they hadn't even noticed the movie title on the marquee -- ``Singin' in the Rain.''
``Purely accidental,'' drum sergeant-major Matt Wahlin insisted.
Eleanor Oelsner, walking by with a huge striped umbrella, started singing along.
``I think that when joyous spirits get together it doesn't matter about the weather,'' she said. ``I'm grateful for them.''
Near Lake Tahoe, the storm was expected to dump up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains. Wind gusts reached 82 mph in Reno and 134 mph at Squaw Peak on the Sierra Nevada crest, according to the National Weather Service. Interstates 80 and 50 were open Saturday, but chain controls were in effect and traffic was being stopped periodically because of poor visibility and accidents.
The next storm due to arrive tonight was expected to bring up to another 2 feet of snow and keep roads treacherous, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Johnson.
Slick roads contributed to a spate of accidents with minor injuries around the Bay Area, and also led to a fatal crash near Dublin early Saturday morning.
Alex Lopez, 23, of Modesto was killed when his white Nissan Sentra crashed into a Toyota 4-Runner at the junction of state Highway 84 and Interstate 680 near Dublin.