Winds of up to 75 mph toppled trees and power lines, leaving residents in San Francisco and California without power after shocking eyewitness footage showed glass falling from apartments

“Hurricane-force winds” sweep through San Francisco

A bomb cyclone has killed one person and plunged over 230,000 residents into darkness after hurricane-force winds battered San Francisco Tuesday night.

The torrential rains hit the west coast after winds of up to 120 km/h caused trees to fall and debris to be blown across the US’s Portolla Valley.

Eyewitness video shows glass falling from high-rise buildings as the storm hit San Francisco Tuesday afternoon.

No injuries were reported in the incident, but evacuation orders were issued after two people were injured by a falling tree.

A similar incident in San Mateo County resulted in the tragic death of one person.

California Highway Patrol Officer David LaRock said more than 230,000 residents were without power after debris and power lines went out.

Vehicles trapped after heavy rain in California (Agency Anadolu via Getty Images)

He told Weather.com, “Due to the strong wind, a large tree fell on the vehicle as it was heading east. When rescuers arrived, they had to remove several large branches to get to the vehicle.”

Eyewitnesses, including meteorologist Drew Tuma, said winds dropped from “60 miles an hour to absolute calm” as he entered the storm.

The winds caused flights to be grounded at San Francisco International Airport and delayed over 300 flights.

After the flood, people had to leave their cars behind(Getty Images)

20 flights were canceled as Oakland and San Jose Mineta International Airports reported delays as passengers took to social media to vent their frustration.

Meanwhile, an overflowing levee in San Francisco triggered a section and drifted away while several boats were stranded.

Motorists across California were stranded after power lines struck Woodside, and many residents were forced to seek shelter after several power cables fell.

Trees and power lines have fallen, leaving thousands of residents without power (AP)

Ferry services were also suspended on Tuesday afternoon after winds caused “oceanic waves” in the Bay Area.

And in San Joaquin County, just two hours from San Francisco, the bomb cyclone flooded streets with deep water as the San Francisco Fire Department urged residents to take precautions.

Spokesman Jonathan Baxter said, “Right now there’s a lot of road closures going on all over San Francisco simply because of downed power lines, downed trees and flooded areas.”

Motorways were closed due to the flooding(Agency Anadolu via Getty Images)

“‘Be aware of the severe storm moving over San Francisco. If you don’t need to travel, consider other options. If you’re on the road, expect delays during your journey.”

With winds of up to 75 mph expected Wednesday, a winter storm warning has been issued for the Lake Tahoe area, with disruptions expected through the end of the week.

The post Bomb cyclone slams into San Francisco killing one and plunging 230,000 into darkness appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

In the coming months, Mayor London Breed and other city officials are expected to announce the opening of Maceo May, a six-story, 105-unit affordable housing development specifically designed for formerly homeless veterans and families on Treasure Island.

The project is one of many currently underway on the man-made island, which has essentially become a 400-acre construction zone. However, when it comes time for city officials to cut the ribbon on Maceo May, one notable group won’t be in attendance: the San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council. 

For years, the organization representing more than two dozen labor unions in San Francisco has been butting heads with Breed and other elected officials on how the city intends to meet its housing goals—and who should be doing that work. In the case of Maceo May, the Building Trades were essentially boxed out.

Members of the Carpenters Local Union 22 listen to Mayor London Breed speak at the Affordable Homes Now Rally in the Tenderloin on June 16, 2022. | Eloïse Kelsey for The Standard

The project instead relied on a unionized group of carpenters working out of Factory_OS, a modular construction plant on Mare Island in Vallejo. What the prefabricated homes may lack in flash, they make up for in efficiency. Supporters of the assembly-line style of production—which includes almost every aspect of a build-out, from the plumbing and electrical to the flooring—say it can radically reduce the cost and duration of construction.

San Francisco has an ambitious state mandate to build 82,000 units of housing by 2031, and Breed and pro-housing advocates see modular construction as an important avenue in reaching that lofty goal. But a war being waged on two fronts—one between the Building Trades and a coalition of carpenters, and the other between the Building Trades and City Hall—is threatening to derail that progress, with disputes on multiple issues boiling over into strongly worded letters and multimillion-dollar fights at the ballot box.

To understand why that matters and what comes next, it might help to recall an act of God that occurred a year and a half ago.

Monsoon on Treasure Island

In October 2021, a “bomb cyclone” more powerful than any storm seen in the previous quarter-century drenched the Bay Area. An atmospheric river traversed across the Pacific Northwest, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of damage across the Left Coast. 

Maceo May wasn’t spared. The storm’s heavy downpour and high-speed winds ravaged the development for one key reason: Maceo May didn’t come with a roof. 

The prefab project—built by members of the Northern California Carpenters Union at Factory_OS—was delivered topless to Treasure Island, with plans to complete roofing at a later stage in construction. Despite “round-the-clock staffing” to protect the project, city officials said the damage was substantial. 

“The project’s location on Treasure Island, in the middle of the Bay and subject to particularly high winds, led to extraordinary damages at this location,” Anne Stanley, a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, said in an email. “Given that modular units are installed before the building’s finish materials or roof are built/installed, units are delivered covered in protective wrappings, but at least some of those wrappings had already been removed for installation.”

The Maceo May modular housing development is seen on Treasure Island on April 18, 2023. | Paul Kuroda for The Standard

The storm harmed nearly every aspect of Maceo May’s build-out, and the estimated cost to repair and complete the project ballooned by nearly $35 million, raising the total price tag to $110 million and delaying completion by more than six months. 

The devastation was shocking, said Malcolm Yeung, the executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center, which partnered with the nonprofit Swords to Plowshares to build Maceo May.

“Did I have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach when I heard the news? Yeah,” Yeung said. “Did my eyes pop out of my head? Yeah. I had to find them and put them back in my skull.”

San Francisco issued new loans to keep the project moving forward, but the extent of the damage and increase in costs have gone unreported until now. City officials expect all of Maceo May’s units to be leased by June.

Who’s Got Skill?

According to leaders of the local Building Trades, the mistakes made at Maceo May are just one example of a larger trend in which local construction jobs are being shipped out of San Francisco to less-skilled workers, resulting in mistakes and additional costs that aren’t accounted for in bids. 

John Dryden, a carpenter and framer, works on corridor walls at the Factory_OS facility in Vallejo on July 26, 2019. | Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Larry Mazzola, president of the Building Trades, has sent multiple letters to the mayor and supervisors calling out Factory_OS, accusing the city of using “smoke and mirrors” to avoid hiring properly skilled and trained San Franciscans and paying prevailing wages.

In a letter from March 2021, Mazzola listed 14 bullet points worth of issues about a modular project at 833 Bryant St. in the South of Market area, noting numerous code violations. While the work of Building Trades’ members is inspected throughout the process of construction, Mazzola said, modular projects are delivered nearly complete, making it impossible to inspect issues like electrical wiring without opening up the walls.

“The carpenters go around telling everybody that it’s too expensive to build housing with union labor, and it’s completely false,” Mazzola told The Standard, citing his shop’s work on the Jazzie Collins Apartments.

Jay Bradshaw, executive secretary-treasurer of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, disputed that characterization, noting that the Carpenters Union has the most workers in residential construction, including affordable housing.

“For Mazzola to make such a false and baseless statement should be an embarrassment to him,” Bradshaw said. “We have never made such a statement. He knows his statement is false and should be ashamed of himself.”

John Dougherty, the business manager and financial secretary for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 6, also has taken issue with Factory_OS, which employs about 400 carpenters under the umbrella of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union.

“They’re taking electrical and performing it in-house, off-site for 21 bucks an hour,” Dougherty said. “It’s taking work opportunities for San Franciscans out of San Francisco.” 

Four recent modular housing projects in San Francisco include: Maceo May; 833 Bryant St.; 410 China Basin St. in Mission Bay; and 1064 Mission St., a permanent supportive housing project also in SoMa.

A modular housing project gets installed in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco on Sept. 28, 2015. | Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The dispute between the SF Building Trades and carpenters came to a head in February, when the carpenters refused to sign a unity pledge with other laborers, leading to the union’s suspension. In turn, carpenters unions across Northern California pulled out of every other building trades council. They later joined the Bay Area Council, a business association that partners with YIMBYs and counts the region’s biggest companies among its members.

The same month that storms hammered Maceo May, the local chapter for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers took a shot at modular housing with a video showing kitchen lights turning on when a worker tried to test the stove.

Supervisor Connie Chan has entered the fray on behalf of the Building Trades, and she suggested in a phone interview that modular projects and other exceptions to local provisions are a slippery slope.

“We are minimizing these long-standing values that we have, and I think that’s problematic,” Chan said.

However, the mayor and pro-development advocates cite two major issues in giving the Building Trades the work it desires: First, the costs of projects skyrocket when accounting for San Francisco unions’ prevailing wages; and second, there aren’t enough unionized laborers to meet San Francisco’s housing goals, let alone the entire state’s goal 2.5 million new units of housing.

“Just to be clear, everyone agrees—[building] trades, carpenters and myself—we’d like to see more unionization of the residential construction workforce. We all share that goal,” state Sen. Scott Wiener told The Standard. “But the sad reality is that right now only about 9% of residential construction workers are unionized. So, when you leave out non-unionized construction workers, you’re leaving out more than 90% of these construction workers, many of whom are capable and skilled, they’re just not in a union or a union apprenticeship program.”

The Factory Fight

Fights between unions and City Hall officials are far from unique. But as the city scrambles to meet a daunting state mandate, those fights could threaten efforts to speed up housing construction.

The exterior of a studio apartment is built at the Factory_OS facility in Vallejo on July 26, 2019. | Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Proposition D, Breed’s signature proposal to streamline housing approvals, fell short last November, in part, because the Building Trades tossed hundreds of thousands of dollars into a competing measure, Prop. E. Meanwhile, a political action committee for the Nor Cal Carpenters Union threw $69,000 into the mayor’s housing measure. Both ballot measures failed.

“We wanted Prop. E to pass. We wouldn’t have put it on [the ballot] just to block Prop. D,” Mazzola said. “But the fact that it did block was an added bonus.”

The rift between the Building Trades and carpenters seems unlikely to be resolved anytime soon. The Nor Cal Carpenters Union has aligned with Wiener and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland)—both champions of all forms of housing construction—in a calculated move that could bring them more work. 

Members of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union lead a chant with San Francisco Mayor London Breed, center, and Jay Bradshaw, right, the union’s executive secretary-treasurer, on the steps of City Hall on April 14, 2023.

At a rally last week at City Hall, members of the carpenters union decried wage theft and tax fraud in between boastful chants about being carpenters. In an interview, Bradshaw, head of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, dismissed the grievances of the local Building Trades on modular construction.

“It’s a total red-herring issue,” he said. “They had zero interest nor capability to expand into industrial production of housing.” 

On the issue of being suspended by the SF Building Trades, Bradshaw added, “They have a right to fight us on it. Good for them.”

Political Winds Blow

In a show of support for the carpenters, Breed and Wiener both attended last week’s event at City Hall. Wiener is carrying two bills with the support of the carpenters: SB 4 and SB 423. The goal of both bills is to streamline and fast-track housing approvals.

The Nor Cal Carpenters Union is proud to support Senate Bills 423 and 4. These bills will streamline the construction of affordable housing in California. Both require Prevailing Wages, Family Medical Healthcare, Apprenticeship, and will have the strongest https://t.co/AWQOEgwluL… pic.twitter.com/fzAiRVaFj4

— Nor Cal Carpenters Union (@NorCalCarpU) March 28, 2023

City officials have stressed that modular housing is just one of many strategies in meeting its Housing Element, which calls for the 82,000 new units.

“Modular construction is one tool we can use, but it is just one tool of many,” said Jeff Cretan, a spokesperson for Breed. “There are numerous other improvements we need to make and we are always open to pursuing different innovative strategies to get more housing built faster.”

But a new front in the war over construction work in San Francisco has emerged in recent weeks. The Building Trades are now accusing the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) of abandoning the citywide Project Labor Agreement, and cutting them out of jobs related to a 2019 housing bond measure that will lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

The Mayor’s Office contends that affordable housing projects that receive funding from the city are not subject to the existing project labor agreement, which prompted the Building Trades to recruit the help of Supervisors Chan and Ahsha Safaí, the latter of whom is considering a run for mayor.

“The previous director of MOHCD sent a letter to the Trades clearly spelling out the city’s position on how the 2019 affordable housing bond would be spent and committed to skilled and trained workforce,” Safaí told The Standard. “That is pretty clear. As far as modular construction goes, we need leadership to bring a modular construction factory to San Francisco that includes all crafts.”

The new fight has affordable housing developers spooked, city officials said. The prospect of contracting with Building Trades laborers on all aspects of a project could raise the cost of construction, although Mazzola and others dispute this argument. If an impasse persists, the Building Trades might oppose a housing bond expected to go to voters in 2024.

Workers build a modular affordable housing project at 833 Bryant St. in San Francisco on June 30, 2020. | By Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

“I don’t know,” Mazzola said. “Opposing a housing bond is tough, but I would like to think that we can work this out, so that there are no problems in the future.”

For some local housing advocates, however, this simmering beef between the Building Trades, City Hall and the carpenters is long overdue and necessary.

“I think the only path is to have this fight and for the carpenters to win,” said Laura Foote, executive director of YIMBY Action. “We’re never going to meet our housing goals under the requirements of the Trades. This fight needs to happen to bring us into the promised land.”

Josh Koehn can be reached at [email protected]

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SAN FRANCISCO — A storm turned into a powerful “bombing cyclone” before slamming into the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one person, closing numerous roads, derailing an Amtrak train and blowing over a large oil rig the Bay Bridge, canceled transit including ferries and buses, grounded flights, uprooted trees and nearly 200,000 PG&E customers without power.

For weather geeks, Tuesday brought a dizzying trifecta of a bomb cyclone, a rare Fujiwhara effect and a stab jet. For everyone else it brought misery.

The storm-related death occurred on the peninsula, where a tree fell on a van traveling along Alpine Road outside Portola Valley, killing the driver inside. According to The Mercury News, a photographer at the scene reported that the victim was driving a plumber’s vehicle.

In Napa County, a tree fell on a pickup truck traveling on Highway 29, completely blocking the road. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.

In the East Bay, an Amtrak train crashed into a fallen tree half a mile east of Port Costa, causing a derailment. There were initially no reports of injuries.

Highway 101 in Marin County was closed due to a fallen tree. Highway 9 was impassable through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A large oil rig has overturned on the Bay Bridge, blocking several lanes of traffic. Nothing was initially known about the condition of the driver.

The weather madness was caused by a “bomb cyclone”. The phenomenon is characterized by a rapid drop in pressure.

The #MontereyBay buoy really made a leap today. Sea level pressure fell by 24 millibars in just under 17 hours! Oops! This is a meteorological (24MB or more drop in 24 hours or less). And we had the wind to prove it. This summary will follow shortly.#cawx pic.twitter.com/EpRoLlmmCc
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) March 22, 2023

But it wasn’t just one depression, at least two were rotating around each other. The rare occurrence is called the Fujiwhara effect.

Which atmospheric Beyblade wins? In the end, the result means strong winds throughout the region! Watch out for fallen trees and power lines https://t.co/K7j5th18ff
— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) March 21, 2023

To make matters worse, the National Weather Service reported a “stab jet,” representing an acceleration of winds near a low-pressure center, the LA Times reported.

The winds roared ashore with more than a dozen gusts at or above hurricane force, destroying trees and power lines. The strongest wind gust was 89 mph recorded at KNPT Towers. Here is the list of locations and gusts recorded by the NWS that equaled or exceeded hurricane strength:

• KNPT Towers 89 MPH
• Point Potrero 88 MPH
• Poo107 Loma Chiquita 85 MPH
• River Los Gatos 82 MPH
• Mount Alison 81 MPH
• Loma Prieta 81 MPH
• Pier One 77 MPH
• Soda Springs Road 76 MPH
• 24.9 SW Greenfield (DRI) 75 MPH
• Mountain Three Times 75 MPH
• Mine Tower 74 MPH
• Oakland Airport 74 MPH
• Lake Drive 74 MPH
• Mount Diablo 74 MPH

In addition to blocking roads, trees downed by the high winds have damaged power lines. At 2:30 p.m., PG&E reported 88,208 customers without power across all five divisions. By 5 p.m., the number had grown to 188,000.

Bay Area Power Outages (Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.)

• East Bay: 82,932 customers
• Peninsula: 43,489 customers
• San Francisco: 34,897 customers
• South Bay: 19,956 customers
• North Bay: 3,183 customers

PG&E said outage activity “increased significantly” in the early afternoon as crews responded to a cascade of reports of downed trees, branches and other debris. The utility said its crews are ready to deploy at full force Tuesday in coordination with the Emergency Operations Center. More than 20 helicopters from the fleet have been placed on standby to assist with aerial photography and other support if needed.

Officials are asking anyone who sees downed wires or wires to stay away and call 911 and then contact PG&E directly at 1-800-743-5002. Residents can also search for outages in their area using the online map or by calling 1-800-743-5000.

Here are some Storm memories from PG&E:

• PG&E encourages customers to have a plan, prepare for power outages, and most importantly, stay safe.
• Customers can find out about outages in their neighborhood through a variety of channels.
  • Contact our Outage Information Hotline at 1-800-743-5002
  • Customers can also log into their account through pge.com and opt-in to receive proactive outage alerts via email, SMS or phone.
• Never touch fallen power lines: If you see a fallen power line, assume it is live and extremely dangerous. Don’t touch it or try to move it – and keep children and animals away. Report broken power lines immediately by calling 911 and calling PG&E at 1-800-743-5002.
• Use flashlights, not candles: During a power outage, use battery-powered flashlights rather than candles due to the risk of fire. If you need to use candles, please keep them away from curtains, lampshades, animals and small children. Do not leave candles unattended.
• Have a spare phone handy: If you have a phone system that requires power to function, such as a cordless phone or an answering machine, plan to have a standard telephone or mobile phone ready as a backup.
• Have fresh drinking water, Ice: Freeze plastic containers filled with water to make blocks of ice to put in your fridge/freezer during a power outage to prevent food spoilage. Blue Ice from your picnic cooler also works well in the freezer.
• Secure outdoor furniture: Patio furniture, light garden structures and decorative lawn items should be secured as they can be blown away by high winds and damage to overhead power lines and property.
• Use Generators Safely: Customers with standby power generators should ensure they are properly installed by a licensed electrician in a well-ventilated area. Improperly installed generators pose a significant hazard to customers and crews working on power lines. If using portable generators, ensure they are in a well-ventilated area.
• Turn off appliances: If you experience a power outage, unplug or turn off all electrical appliances to avoid overloading circuits and risk of fire when power is restored. Just leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your devices back on one at a time as conditions return to normal.
• Clean Up Safely: After the storm has passed, make sure you clean up safely. Never touch fallen utilities and always call 8-1-1 at least two full business days before digging or visit 811express.com to have all underground utilities safely tagged.

The post 1 Lifeless As ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Ravages Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

At least two vehicles were hit by fallen trees; an Amtrak train derailed in the East Bay after hitting a tree; 188,000 lost power.

Mar 21 2023 3:20pm PDT | Updated Mar 21, 2023 9:25pm PDT

SAN FRANCISCO — A storm turned into a powerful “bombing cyclone” before slamming into the San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast Tuesday afternoon, killing at least one person, closing numerous roads, derailing an Amtrak train and blowing over a large oil rig the Bay Bridge, canceled transit including ferries and buses, grounded flights, uprooted trees and nearly 200,000 PG&E customers without power.

For weather geeks, Tuesday brought a dizzying trifecta of a bomb cyclone, a rare Fujiwhara effect and a stab jet. For everyone else it brought misery.

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The storm-related death occurred on the peninsula, where a tree fell on a van traveling along Alpine Road outside Portola Valley, killing the driver inside. According to The Mercury News, a photographer at the scene reported that the victim was driving a plumber’s vehicle.

In Napa County, a tree fell on a pickup truck traveling on Highway 29, completely blocking the road. Fortunately, the driver was not injured.

In the East Bay, an Amtrak train crashed into a fallen tree half a mile east of Port Costa, causing a derailment. There were initially no reports of injuries.

Highway 101 in Marin County was closed due to a fallen tree. Highway 9 was impassable through the Santa Cruz Mountains.

A large oil rig has overturned on the Bay Bridge, blocking several lanes of traffic. Nothing was initially known about the condition of the driver.

The weather madness was caused by a “bomb cyclone”. The phenomenon is characterized by a rapid drop in pressure.

But it wasn’t just one depression, at least two were rotating around each other. The rare occurrence is called the Fujiwhara effect.

To make matters worse, the National Weather Service reported a “stab jet,” representing an acceleration of winds near a low-pressure center, the LA Times reported.

The winds roared ashore with more than a dozen gusts at or above hurricane force, destroying trees and power lines. The strongest wind gust was 89 mph recorded at KNPT Towers. Here is the list of locations and gusts recorded by the NWS that equaled or exceeded hurricane strength:

• KNPT Towers 89 MPH
• Point Potrero 88 MPH
• Poo107 Loma Chiquita 85 MPH
• River Los Gatos 82 MPH
• Mount Alison 81 MPH
• Loma Prieta 81 MPH
• Pier One 77 MPH
• Soda Springs Road 76 MPH
• 24.9 SW Greenfield (DRI) 75 MPH
• Mountain Three Times 75 MPH
• Mine Tower 74 MPH
• Oakland Airport 74 MPH
• Lake Drive 74 MPH
• Mount Diablo 74 MPH

In addition to blocking roads, trees downed by the high winds have damaged power lines. At 2:30 p.m., PG&E reported 88,208 customers without power across all five divisions. By 5 p.m., the number had grown to 188,000.

Bay Area Power Outages (Tuesday at 5:00 p.m.)

• East Bay: 82,932 customers
• Peninsula: 43,489 customers
• San Francisco: 34,897 customers
• South Bay: 19,956 customers
• North Bay: 3,183 customers

PG&E said outage activity “increased significantly” in the early afternoon as crews responded to a cascade of reports of downed trees, branches and other debris. The utility said its crews are ready to deploy at full force Tuesday in coordination with the Emergency Operations Center. More than 20 helicopters from the fleet have been placed on standby to assist with aerial photography and other support if needed.

Officials are asking anyone who sees downed wires or wires to stay away and call 911 and then contact PG&E directly at 1-800-743-5002. Residents can also search for outages in their area using the online map or by calling 1-800-743-5000.

Here are some Storm memories from PG&E:

• PG&E encourages customers to have a plan, prepare for power outages, and most importantly, stay safe.
• Customers can find out about outages in their neighborhood through a variety of channels.
  • Contact our Outage Information Hotline at 1-800-743-5002
  • Customers can also log into their account through pge.com and opt-in to receive proactive outage alerts via email, SMS or phone.
• Never touch fallen power lines: If you see a fallen power line, assume it is live and extremely dangerous. Don’t touch it or try to move it – and keep children and animals away. Report broken power lines immediately by calling 911 and calling PG&E at 1-800-743-5002.
• Use flashlights, not candles: During a power outage, use battery-powered flashlights rather than candles due to the risk of fire. If you need to use candles, please keep them away from curtains, lampshades, animals and small children. Do not leave candles unattended.
• Have a spare phone handy: If you have a phone system that requires power to function, such as a cordless phone or an answering machine, plan to have a standard telephone or mobile phone ready as a backup.
• Have fresh drinking water, Ice: Freeze plastic containers filled with water to make blocks of ice to put in your fridge/freezer during a power outage to prevent food spoilage. Blue Ice from your picnic cooler also works well in the freezer.
• Secure outdoor furniture: Patio furniture, light garden structures and decorative lawn items should be secured as they can be blown away by high winds and damage to overhead power lines and property.
• Use Generators Safely: Customers with standby power generators should ensure they are properly installed by a licensed electrician in a well-ventilated area. Improperly installed generators pose a significant hazard to customers and crews working on power lines. If using portable generators, ensure they are in a well-ventilated area.
• Turn off appliances: If you experience a power outage, unplug or turn off all electrical appliances to avoid overloading circuits and risk of fire when power is restored. Just leave a single lamp on to alert you when power returns. Turn your devices back on one at a time as conditions return to normal.
• Clean Up Safely: After the storm has passed, make sure you clean up safely. Never touch fallen utilities and always call 8-1-1 at least two full business days before digging or visit 811express.com to have all underground utilities safely tagged.

The post 1 Lifeless As Bomb Cyclone Ravages Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – A large decaying cyclone off the west coast caused showers in the San Francisco Bay Area and snowstorms in the Sierra early Wednesday.

The National Weather Service said Northern California is in the midst of an active weather pattern, welcome relief to a region that has suffered severe drought conditions for much of the year.

CONTINUE READING: Time-honored tradition that Christmas brings life to life in the San Jose neighborhood

“The western US is entering a period of increasingly volatile weather as moisture is predicted to invade land from a large decaying cyclone off the west coast,” the NWS said in its National Outlook. “The rainfall currently moving in Northern California is only a preview of what is to come as another low pressure system near the west coast of Canada is slated to run towards the Pacific Northwest in the next few days.”

The storm door definitely opened during the year.

“A low-pressure conveyor belt is moving into the area – this would mean a pretty wet end for 2021, but it’s a little too far away to care too much,” weather forecasters said. “That’ll be something to check in later this week.”

Forecasters predicted 2.3 inches of rain in San Francisco by December 25.

“If this is confirmed, SF will be back at the top of the 10 wettest water years to date by the end of the week,” they said.

CONTINUE READING: Bay Area residents are battling last-minute COVID tests on Christmas Eve

The coastal mountains in North Bay could see 3-5 inches with up to 6 inches of rain over the higher peaks. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, areas that were already saturated with rain last week could fall another 3-6 inches.

“The good news is that the rain sums are spread over many days, which should mitigate the major effects,” tweeted the weather service. “But be prepared for minor floods, slippery roads and potential debris flows / mudslides.”

In the Sierra, a winter weather warning came into effect on Tuesday at 7 p.m., and it changes to a winter storm warning from Thursday morning to Sunday.

“Heavy snow expected (from Thursday),” warned the weather service in Reno. “Total snow accumulations from 2 to 4 feet up to 4 to 8 feet over 7,000 feet. Wind gusts up to 40 miles per hour, with the ridge gusts likely being over 100 miles per hour. “

For the thousands traveling from the Bay Area to Tahoe over the holiday weekend, it means it will be a slow journey.

MORE NEWS: UPDATE: North I-680 reopens; Evacuation order canceled after a petrol tank accident

“As soon as the snow starts (Tuesday) evening, traveling through the Sierra up to this weekend will sometimes become more and more difficult or almost impossible,” warned the NWS Reno forecasters. “Be prepared for long delays and rapidly changing territory pass conditions.”

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