Alpine Road in Portola Valley, California remains closed after a falling tree struck a truck and caused one death Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

A man was killed when a tree fell on his truck while the vehicle was moving on Alpine Road in Portola Valley on Tuesday, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Winds swirled through the Bay Area as a powerful storm swept across the region Tuesday afternoon, downing trees in the area.

The CHP received reports of the incident at 1:34 p.m. Tuesday. The vehicle, a sewage truck, was traveling eastbound on Alpine Road toward Interstate 280. The tree fell while the vehicle was moving, killing the driver, who was the only occupant of the car, authorities said.

According to the CHP, several trees had fallen in the same area from 2:45 p.m.

A Bay Area News Group photographer on site confirmed that the truck carried signs for Able Plumbing, Sewer & Drain. A person who answered the phone for the company Tuesday afternoon declined to comment.

The driver was not immediately identified by authorities until the identity was confirmed and next of kin notified.

This is an evolving story. Check for updates again.

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The post Man dies after fallen tree smashes shifting car in Portola Valley appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

An early spring storm system with gusty winds and light to moderate rain is causing problems in the Bay Area.

We track the top issues below.

Here’s the latest from Thursday, March 23:

Highway 92 closed in both directions

Highway 92 is closed in both directions near Half Moon Bay due to a fallen tree, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office.

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TRAFFIC WARNING

1) Block 12000 of Highway 92 is CLOSED in both directions due to an 80 foot tree falling across the roadway. Emergency services are on site. ETA at least 2 hours until reopening. Cars will turn into HMB at e/b Hwy 92 @ Main St. Please avoid the area and take alternative routes. pic.twitter.com/5XjnPsEZMp

— San Mateo County SO (@SMCSheriff) March 23, 2023

Here’s the latest from Wednesday, March 22nd:

Flooding paralyzes highways in Sonoma

Highway 121 and Highway 12 in Sonoma are closed due to flooding, according to the California Highway Patrol.

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SR-121 and SR-12 in Sonoma are closed due to flooding. It is both illegal and unsafe to cross cone patterns and “Road Closed” signs. Never drive through flooded lanes, you don’t know the condition of the lane hidden under water. pic.twitter.com/buTVi1S6mZ

— CHP Napa Territory (@CHP_Napa) March 22, 2023

A police sergeant has been hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after a tree fell on a car he was driving in San Francisco on Tuesday. All details here.

A police sergeant was injured after a tree fell on a car in San Francisco. (March 21, 2023)

The death of a man is likely linked to the storm, officials said Wednesday. The death was reported Tuesday after a tree fell on a tent in the Lake Merritt area. Read more here.

The storm killed two people in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to the mayor’s office.

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We tragically lost two lives in yesterday’s dangerous storm that hit San Francisco. These repeated storms have been very challenging and created severe conditions that our city crews are working to assess. https://t.co/v01kfh0W5w

— London Breed (@LondonBreed) March 22, 2023

According to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, residents of about 30 homes in Woodside are being advised to evacuate Wednesday morning because of a landslide in the area. Just before 8 a.m., the sheriff’s office issued a “strongly recommended evacuation” for homes in blocks 600 through 800 of Patrol Road. – Bay City News

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If you live in this area, please pack your “go bag” with the essentials: insurance policy, pets, medication, change of clothes and LEAVE NOW. Once the road stops completely, residents in that area will not have access to emergency services. Evacuation site TBD pic.twitter.com/zz3fEpKz8o

— San Mateo County SO (@SMCSheriff) March 22, 2023

Southbound Highway 85 remained closed south of the ramp to De Anza Boulevard in San Jose early Wednesday after the road flooded Tuesday night, the California Highway Patrol said.

A landslide closes Edgewood Road near Redwood City

A landslide shut down Edgewood Road near Redwood City between Interstate 280 and Crestview Drive early Wednesday morning, according to a San Mateo County alert.

Rain and wind caused a series of problems across the peninsula Wednesday night, including downed trees, landslides and flooding in various parts of San Mateo County. Kris Sanchez reports.

Here’s the latest from Tuesday, March 21:

Freeway. 101 is closing in Redwood City for PG&E repairs

Highway. 101 from Ralston Avenue to Hillsdale Boulevard in Redwood City will be closed Tuesday from 11 p.m. to midnight for PG&E repairs, the CHP said.

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PG&E has requested a complete road closure in both directions of US-101 from Ralston Avenue to Hillsdale Blvd. tonight from 11:00 p.m. to midnight to work on repairing the line.

Plan ahead and choose alternative routes. Avoid the area if possible. https://t.co/qahqtbikNi

— CHP Redwood City (@CHP_RedwoodCity) March 22, 2023

Downed power lines closed the Fairfield junction

The intersection of San Rafael Street and Kidder Avenue in Fairfield is closed due to downed power lines, according to police.

There is no estimated time for reopening.

Loose barges damage bridge near Oracle Park

Industrial barges somehow got loose and drove onto the 3rd Street bridge near Oracle Park.

The public should avoid the area, firefighters say.

AVOID AREA 3RD STREET BRIDGE

INDUSTRIAL BARGES LOSE AND HIT THE BRIDGE- 3RD STREET BRIDGE (LEFTY O’DOULS’ IS CLOSED

DIGITAL CREDIT SFFD PIO pic.twitter.com/wvdNFGCsXc

— SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) March 22, 2023

Two people rescued after a large tree fell on a truck in Newark

Firefighters rescued two people after a large gum tree fell on a truck in Newark.

One person was taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

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Today ACFD responded to a rescue emergency in the city of Newark. T28 and E32 were able to extricate two victims after a large eucalyptus tree fell on their pickup truck.

Falck transported one person to a nearby hospital for minor injuries. #ALCOFIRE #ACFDServingnewark pic.twitter.com/r6OuGe6xRZ

— Alameda County Fire (@AlamedaCoFire) March 21, 2023

San Francisco Bay Ferry Service discontinued

Ferry service is suspended due to severe storm and high wind conditions.

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We assume that the service will run as planned on Wednesday.

— San Francisco Bay Ferry (@SFBayFerry) March 21, 2023

Train derails after hitting a tree in Contra Costa County

A train derailed after hitting a tree near Carquinez Scenic and Regional Shoreline Park, firefighters said. No injuries reported.

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@FireCrockett reacts to a derailed Amtrak train 1/2 mile east of Port Costa. First reports without injuries.

— CrockettCarquinezFire (@FireCrockett) March 21, 2023 See more

ALERT: Train 543 is currently being held at Martinez (MTZ) due to congestion along the route. We will update as more information becomes available. #CapitolCorridor

— Capitol Corridor (@CapitolCorridor) March 21, 2023

More shards of falling window glass are being reported from a building at 50 California Street in San Francisco, Supervisor Aaron Peskin said in a tweet.

Road closures are being reported in the area while emergency responders respond and investigate. Read the latest here.

People being directed away from Sacramento Street in San Francisco are getting blown around as they walk through Embarcadero Center. pic.twitter.com/QpwADX0kE1

— Sergio Quintana (@svqjournalist) March 21, 2023

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High winds have caused more shards of window glass to fall from another building in 50 California. The problematic intersection at Sacramento and Davis means traffic is being diverted.

Thanks to the emergency services on site.

— Aaron Peskin (@AaronPeskin) March 21, 2023

According to the California Highway Patrol, a driver was killed Tuesday afternoon after a large tree fell on a pickup truck near Menlo Park in unincorporated San Mateo County.

According to the CHP, the driver was alone in the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Highway 17 reopens in Santa Cruz County

Highway 17 was closed in both directions in Scotts Valley on Tuesday afternoon, the CHP said. The closure was on Mt. Herman Road. Shortly after 2 p.m. both directions were released again

The post Fallen Bushes, Energy Outages, Street Closures – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Four people were in critical condition and one person suffered moderate injuries from downed trees in windy conditions in San Francisco Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

The injuries occurred as howling winds swept across the city between 3:45 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., Lt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department.

Two people were left with serious injuries and taken to a local hospital when a tree was downed on Post and Polk streets, Baxter told SFGATE by phone at 9 p.m. In another incident, a person was seriously injured by a fallen tree at 23rd Avenue and Lincoln near the Panhandle.

A tree fell on a car on Brotherhood Way and Lake Merced Boulevard. “One person has been rescued and is in critical condition,” Baxter said.

In Ellis, between Hyde and Leavenworth, a person was moderately injured by a fallen tree, he said.

Dangerous winds lashed across San Francisco Tuesday afternoon as a low-pressure system swept across the region. Individual gusts in the city approached 50 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.

After 8:30 p.m., the weather service reported that the low pressure area was moving into the North Bay and the winds were decreasing. “However, the associated rain will continue overnight with isolated showers into Wednesday,” said the weather service.

“With these unprecedented storms and weather events, it’s important to be prepared and have heightened awareness,” Baxter said. “Watch out for trees, cables and standing puddles of water.”

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SAN FRANCISCO — Real estate prices are rising across the country — overall. However, looking at individual markets, some Bay Area neighborhoods show that prices are down compared to a year ago.

Average single-family home prices rose 4% year over year to $378,700 in the fourth quarter. Prices were strongest in the Northeast last quarter, up 5.3%; followed by the south with a plus of 4.9%; the Midwest by 4% and the West by 2.6%, according to the National Association of Realtors.

But if you look at the market level, it’s clear that prices in some areas are down from last year. The upbeat regional numbers obscure that about 11% of the individual housing markets tracked by NAR — 20 out of 186 cities — saw home prices fall in the fourth quarter of last year.

“Some markets could see double-digit price declines, particularly some of the more expensive parts of the country, which have also seen weaker employment and more frequent outflows of residents to other areas,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

Almost all of the most expensive places to shop are in the West, and half of the top 10 most expensive cities are in California. Several of these places are where prices fall the most.

San Jose was the most expensive place to buy a home in the United States in the fourth quarter. But that median price of $1,577,500 is actually 5.8% lower than a year ago — and prices there are already down 17% from the peak price of $1,900,000 in the second quarter of last year, according to NAR.

San Francisco saw the country’s largest year-over-year price drop last quarter, with an average price drop of $1,230,000 — down 6.1% year over year. San Francisco home prices are already down 21% in the fourth quarter from a peak of $1,550,000 in the second quarter.

Among the most expensive cities where prices fell were Anaheim, with an average price of $1,132,000, down 1.6% from a year ago; Los Angeles, with an average price of $829,100, fell 1.3%; and Boulder, Colorado, with an average price of $759,500, down 2.0%.

Other places with falling prices have seen the big price increases during the past few years’ hectic home buying market. They’re also typically attractive lifestyle destinations for people to relocate to, as remote work offers more flexibility. These include Boise, Idaho, where prices are down 3.4% year over year, and Austin, Texas, where prices are down 1.3%.

The good news for buyers looking for price relief is that the 4% average price increase in the fourth quarter is smaller than the 8.6% increase in the third quarter. In addition, the price increases are smaller, with far fewer markets posting double-digit gains in the fourth quarter.

“A slowdown in home prices is underway and is being welcomed, especially as the typical home price has risen 42% over the past three years,” Yun said, noting that these cost increases have far outpaced wage increases and consumer price inflation since 2019.

A fragmented market

For much of the pandemic, home prices across the country moved in one direction: up. Some hotspots like Austin and Boise saw prices soar. In other areas — particularly the Midwest — prices rose more moderately. However, with mortgage rates hovering near historic lows, buyers flocked.

That story changed last year when mortgage rates soared in the wake of the Federal Reserve’s historic campaign to curb inflation. Buying a house fell off a cliff. By the end of 2022, existing home sales were down nearly 18% from 2021 as prospective homebuyers exited the market, according to NAR.

Typically, a drop in buying demand would mean oversupply and ultimately lead to falling prices. But that, by and large, is not happening in the housing market.

Instead, single-family home prices rose in nearly 90% of the metro areas tracked by NAR in the fourth quarter: 166 out of 186 markets still recorded rising prices. The national median price for a single-family home rose 4% year over year to $378,700 last quarter.

How can that be?

A major reason for this phenomenon is that due to the chronic underbuild of affordable homes in the United States, there is a shortage of inventory, along with homeowners reluctant to part with the extremely low mortgage rates they have secured for the last several years have .

“Even with a projected decline in home sales this year, prices are expected to remain stable in the vast majority of markets due to extremely limited supply,” Yun said.

There are still places where property prices continue to rise at double-digit rates. The top 10 cities with the largest year-over-year price increases all posted gains of at least 14.5%, according to NAR, with seven of those markets being in Florida and the Carolinas.

Farmington, New Mexico, saw the largest price increase in the fourth quarter, up 20.3% year over year. It was followed by Sarasota, Florida, up 19.5%; Naples, Florida, up 17.2%; Greensboro, NC, up 17.0%; Myrtle Beach, SC, up 16.2%; Oshkosh, Wisconsin, up 16.0%; Winston-Salem, North Carolina, up 15.7%; El Paso, Texas, up 15.2%; Punta Gorda, Fla., up 15.2%; and Daytona Beach, Fla., by 14.5%.

How is affordability changing?

In the last quarter of 2022, a family was required to have a qualifying income of at least $100,000 to afford a 10% down payment mortgage in 71 markets, up from 59 in the previous quarter, according to NAR.

Still, there were 16 markets in which a family required a qualifying income of less than $50,000 to purchase a home, although this was down from 17 in the previous quarter. Some were Peoria, Illinois, where a family earning $33,660 may qualify for a loan; Waterloo, Iowa, with an income of $40,639; and Montgomery, Alabama, with income of $48,172.

According to NAR, the monthly mortgage payment for a typical existing single-family home with a 20% down payment was $1,969 nationwide in the fourth quarter. That’s a 7% increase from last year’s third quarter when the monthly payment was $1,838, but a big 58% increase — or a monthly increase of $720 — year over year.

This made the affordability picture even more difficult for many homebuyers. Families typically spent 26.2% of their income on mortgage payments, up from 25% in the previous quarter and 17.5% a year ago.

First-time buyers have obviously been pushed to a breaking point of affordability. They typically spent 39.5% of their family income on mortgage payments, up from 37.8% in the previous quarter. A mortgage is considered unpayable when the monthly installment, including principal and interest, is more than 25% of family income. In general, a common financial rule of thumb is that you shouldn’t spend more than 30% of your income on housing.

The post Costs for single-family houses in San Francisco, San Jose have fallen appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

‘F9’, the tenth entry in the never-ending “Fast and Furious” series – spin-off “Hobbes & Shaw” – is a big summer movie that the industry is hoping to get people back to theaters on Friday too bring.

The audience must be in a forgiving mood.

Fans are used to looking past the ridiculousness, boasting, and soap opera drama of the series for the good things: chases, fights, and explosions.

“F9” delivers the goods in a handful of scenes and some really impressive, breathtaking stunts. But then there is the other 80% of a 145 minute film to deal with.

Directed by Justin Lin, the film focuses on Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his dark past in its fifth appearance in the series (he was also behind numbers 3-6).

Starting with a flashback to 1989, the young Dom cuts off his racing teeth and helps his father, a racing driver. Something goes terribly wrong during a race, and Dom and his younger brother Jakob have a huge argument. That might be enough information to fuel the little plot here, but the flashbacks go on throughout the film.

Today Dom and Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) live peacefully in a remote farmhouse and raise Dom’s son.

(In Part 8, The Fate of the Furious, it was revealed that Dom had a son he knew nothing about from a previous affair. While these films may be stupid, viewers must be fairly familiar with their extensive lore.)

The calm is quickly interrupted when Tej (Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), Roman (Tyrese Gibson) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) arrive.

They bring a mangled, twitching video message from Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell). (Why does a buggy video only look like this in the movies?)

Apparently someone is after a doomsday device called Project Aries. Two halves of the device must be procured, followed by a secret key that activates them.

The team set out to find the first half, leaving the little kid behind, apparently not being watched by anyone. (There may be an explanation for this, but it’s more goofy and weird than anyone dares imagine.)

After a massive chase – including an amazing section of a rickety rope bridge – modern day Jakob (John Cena, making his “F&F” debut) grabs the first part of the device and drives away.

As in any “Must collect the three parts of a Dingamajig” story, the bad guys get the doomsday device working, and then it’s up to our heroes to stop it, preferably when the last, end of the world upload hits around 99.9%.

The task is to have two team members go where no F&F team member has been before: into space to create another of the movie’s few precious, super cool scenes.

There are many car chases along the way. In the last entry, “The Fate of the Furious,” filmmakers came up with crazy things, including a wrecking ball rushing through city blocks and knocking cars off the street, and a car chase between motor vehicles and a submarine!

In “F9” most car chases are connected to powerful electromagnets that, mounted in the rear of various vehicles, pull parked cars in front of moving cars or tear metallic objects out of shop windows when the heroes drive by.

It’s fun for a while and the stunts are varied at first. But the basic idea is repeated over and over again.

And in a smaller martial arts fight in an apartment, Lin falls back on his old jerky, jerky camera work, which creates chaos rather than suggests.

The “family” theme here focuses on the predictable and all too serious conflict between the cathedral and Jacob. Cena shows none of his natural humor, and Diesel has an unchanging grim expression throughout.

In other “family” stuff, previous actors reappear – including Cipher (Charlize Theron), Queenie (Helen Mirren) and Sean (Lucas Black) – for the purpose of audience identification.

But recognizing and feeling characters is different. Perhaps this franchise’s DNA is the problem. In the beginning, the films were nothing more than characters trying to outdo and outdo each other. Maybe the fear of being uncool remains.

Perhaps filmmakers feared that being silly or honest is the opposite of cool when the opposite is true. If “F9” had the courage to acknowledge its ridiculousness, it could have rushed into the sunset instead of spitting.

REVIEW: Q9: The Quick Saga

With: Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, John Cena, Jordana Brewster

Written by: Justin Lin, Daniel Casey

Directed by: Justin Lin

Rated: PG-13

Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Movies and television

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