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

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Around midnight on June 28, Calvin Hu was driving with his girlfriend near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park when he pulled up at an intersection behind two white and orange autonomous Chevrolet Bolts operated by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors. Another was stopped to his right in the adjacent lane. The light turned green but the cars, which operate in the city without drivers, didn’t move.

When Hu prepared to reverse and go around the frozen vehicles, he says, he noticed that several more cruise vehicles had stopped in the lanes behind him. Hu, another driver, and a paratransit bus were trapped in a robotaxi sandwich.

After a few minutes of bemused waiting, Hu says, he resorted to driving over the curbs of the street’s median to escape. When he returned on foot a few minutes later to see whether the situation had resolved, the Cruise vehicles hadn’t budgeted. A person who appeared to work for the company had parked in the intersection, Hu says, as if to indicate the street was closed, and was trying to direct traffic away from the immobile self-driving cars. Hu estimates that the robot car blockade, which has not previously been reported, lasted at least 15 minutes.

The cruise vehicles that trapped Hu weren’t the only autonomous cars holding up traffic in San Francisco that night. Internal messages seen by WIRED show that nearly 60 vehicles were disabled across the city over a 90-minute period after they lost touch with a Cruise server. As many as 20 cars, some of them halted in crosswalks, created a jam in the city’s downtown in an incident first reported by the San Francisco Examiner and detailed in photos posted to Reddit. In a written statement the California Department of Motor Vehicles, which oversees the state’s autonomous vehicle operations, said it was aware of the incident and would meet with Cruise to “gather additional information.”

The June 28 outage wasn’t Cruise’s first. On the evening of May 18, the company lost touch with its entire fleet for 20 minutes as its cars sat stopped in the street, according to internal documentation viewed by WIRED. Company staff were unable to see where the vehicles were located or communicate with riders inside. Worst of all, the company was unable to access its system which allows remote operators to safely steer stopped vehicles to the side of the road.

A letter sent anonymously by a Cruise employee to the California Public Utilities Commission that month, which was reviewed by WIRED, alleged that the company loses contact with its driverless vehicles “with regularity,” blocking traffic and potentially hindering emergency vehicles. The vehicles can sometimes only be recovered by tow truck, the letter said. Images and video posted on social media in May and June show Cruise vehicles stopped in San Francisco traffic lanes seemingly inexplicably, as the city’s pedestrians and motorists navigate around them.

Cruise spokesperson Tiffany Testo says that the cars stuck on May 18 “were able to move over as part of the suite of fallback systems Cruise has in place.” She provided a written statement that said the company’s vehicles are programmed to pull over and turn on their hazard lights when they encounter a technical problem or meet road conditions they can’t handle. “We’re working to minimize how often this happens, but it is and will remain one aspect of our overall safety operations,” the statement said. Testo did not respond to questions about multiple incidents in which Cruise vehicles stopped in traffic.

The outages come at a vital time for Cruise, which is accelerating its autonomous vehicle program on the tricky streets of San Francisco as it competes with well-capitalized rivals like Google’s sister company Waymo, Aurora, and Zoox, which is owned by Amazon. In the spring, General Motors bought out the SoftBank Vision Fund’s $2.1 billion stake in Cruise and invested another $1.35 billion into the self-driving unit. Just over two weeks after the May outage that froze Cruise’s fleet, the CPUC approved Cruise’s permit to charge money for Uber-like ride-hail rides—opening a path to a full commercial robotaxi service that could help the company start to recover the billions it has poured into building its technology.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – An extensive Xfinity cable and internet outage was reported in the Bay Area on Monday evening and early Tuesday morning, affecting much of the Bay Area.

The DownDetector.com website showed an increase in Xfinity outages reported just before 10 p.m. More than 24,000 people reported the outage, according to the website, but rampant complaints on social media suggested the outage was widespread, affecting customers in San Francisco and the Peninsula, East Bay, and North Bay.

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The outage was so widespread that the Marin County Sheriff tweeted a reminder to residents not to call 9-1-1 to report or complain about their internet outage and to contact their provider instead.

There have been reports of internet outages across Marin and Sonoma Counties.

Please do not call 911 to ask why your internet is down. Call your Internet Service Provider. pic.twitter.com/Re5Eb560Gm

– Marin County Sheriff (@MarinSheriff) November 9, 2021

While service was restored to some customers by early Tuesday, Comcast’s service heat map showed that several Bay Area communities were still experiencing outages.

Comcast begins getting customers up and running after the widespread Internet outage in the Bay Area.

Full recovery could take some time across the region.

Comcast has not disclosed the reason for the outage – more information on this specific issue will follow.

– Mike McGuire (@ilike_mike) November 9, 2021

More than 54,000 customers reported service disruptions by Tuesday morning.

The number of outages appears to be falling significantly a few hours after a rise on Tuesday morning, which had more than twice as many reports of service problems as the previous evening around 5 p.m.

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On Tuesday morning at around 8:00 am, the Xfinity support Twitter account published that “a network problem” led to “temporary service interruptions” for some customers.

Some customers experience intermittent service interruptions due to a network problem. Our teams are actively working to bring affected customers back online as we investigate further. We apologize to those affected.

– Xfinity Support (@XfinitySupport) November 9, 2021

Meanwhile, the Xfinity outage website was loading extremely slowly on Tuesday morning. Customers were encouraged to visit the Xfinity support page or the Xfinity Response Center to see when their local outage could be resolved.

Major outages were also reported in and around Philadelphia, near Chicago, the Indianapolis area, near Detroit, New England and the Los Angeles area on Tuesday morning.

Sooooo … Comcast is down all over the city of Chicago? Fun! The whole country? Even better! #comcastdown #comcastoutage

– Nicole Oppenheim (@namoagogo) November 9, 2021

Here’s a map showing the much greater extent of the Comcast outages on the east coast. There are some outages in California but not that widespread pic.twitter.com/nysluNuHSS

– BREAK NOW !! (@GRApidsnews) November 9, 2021

Major # Internet failure detected: #Comcast in #Pennsylvania since 8:05 am

Live map and analysis
https://t.co/SKti7Iwh6B

Retweet if for you below # comcastcares #Comcastdown #Comcastoutage #nointernet #EarlyMorning pic.twitter.com/pOoFj4pe15

– Fing Internet Alert (@outagedetect) November 9, 2021

Significant #internet failure detected: #Comcast in #Indiana since 8:05 am, affecting #Chesterton #MichiganCity #Griffith +14 areas

Live map and analysis
https://t.co/gaDruAUTFL#comcastcares #Comcastdown #Comcastoutage #nointernet #EarlyMorning pic.twitter.com/PaUe8USeuD

– Fing Internet Alert (@outagedetect) November 9, 2021

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Thousands of residents of the San Francisco Bay Area were without power by dozens of times on Sunday evening after rain showers triggered by a cold front sweeping the area combined with layers of dust accumulated over several months of the drought Short circuit power transformers and electrical lines.

Pacific Gas & Electric reported outages that stretched from the Dublin-Pleasanton area in the East Bay to much of the neighborhoods between Colma and South San Francisco on the peninsula.

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“Several neighborhoods in South San Francisco are experiencing power outages, including intersections controlled by traffic lights,” San Mateo County officials said in an email alert. “Please stop at these intersections as you would with controlled four-way stop signs. PG&E and the fire brigade are working to fix the problems. “

The PG&E website estimated that power would be out for more than 5,000 customers in the Dublin-Pleasanton area at least until about 10:15 p.m.

Hundreds of homes in Vallejo were also without power, as well as in the Richmond-San Pablo area.

“PG&E has multiple locations in @CityofVallejo, but there is no estimate of when all failures will be resolved,” tweeted the Vallejo Fire Department. “The areas affected by the failure have increased as more line failures continue to occur.”

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Meanwhile, the Alameda County Fire Department tweeted, “For the past hour, your ACFD firefighters have been busy responding to electric boom fires due to the rain. If you see cable vaults, retire to a safe place and call 9-1-1. “

Several minor outages have also been reported in downtown Burlingame, Pleasanton Hill, San Jose, Daly City, San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond, San Pablo, Crockett, and Rodeo.

According to PG&E, a total of 35,028 customers were without power on Sunday evening, 9,593 of them on the San Francisco Peninsula and 14,783 in the East Bay.

PG&E said crews have been deployed across the region to work on restoring electricity. There were no ETAs as to when power would be restored.

The culprit on Sunday evening was the first of several cold fronts to set up in the Pacific and is expected to sweep through the parched Bay Area this week.

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“The showers are currently stretching from Monterey Bay to the Napa Mountains,” said the National Weather Service on Sunday night. “These showers have brought from a few hundredths of an inch of rain on parts of our coasts and bays to nearly a quarter of an inch of rain on some of the highest peaks along the North Bay coastline.”

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Fierce Diablo winds are expected to hit Northern California this week, creating an increased risk of fire in the burn-torn region and prompting Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to prepare for potential blackouts in parts of 43 counties, warned utilities.

In part of the Sierra Nevada, which extends to the south of the Santa Cruz Mountains, power outages could occur from Wednesday, according to PG&E.

Two dangerous wind events are expected this week – the first one begins on Wednesday afternoon or evening and extends through Thursday morning and the second develops on Thursday evening and runs through Friday morning, forecasters said.

On Monday morning, the National Weather Service released a fire weather watch for late Tuesday through Friday morning, predicting that the strongest gusts of the first wind event would occur overnight from Wednesday through Thursday. The greatest threat is in the mountains of northeastern counties Napa and Sonoma, where the destructive glass fire is still raging, according to the weather service.

“Any fires that start are likely to spread quickly due to a combination of dry fuel, windy northerly winds, and low humidity,” the forecasters said.

In anticipation of the winds, PG&E announced that the power supply could be cut from Wednesday to Friday for parts of the following counties: Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Humboldt, Lassen, Plumas, Shasta, Siskiyou, Tehama, Trinity, Alpine, Amador, Calaveras El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, and Yuba.

Parts of 24 other counties – Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Benito, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Trinity, Yolo, Fresno, Inyo , Kern, Madera, Mariposa, Tulare and Tuolumne – could experience shutdowns for a shorter period of time, utility officials said.

The shutdowns are unlikely to affect entire counties, PG&E said, noting widespread outages in the Bay Area are unlikely.

The agency says the areas most likely to shutdown are the foothills of the northern sierra; the middle and higher peaks of the Sierra, generally north of Yosemite; the northern Bay Area Mountains near Mt. St. Helena; small bags in the East Bay Area near Mt. Diablo; the Oakland Hills east of Piedmont; the elevated terrain east of Milpitas around the Calaveras Reservoir; and parts of the Santa Cruz and Big Sur mountains.

The utility has agreed to pay $ 25.5 billion to settle claims for damages in a previous series of fatal fires stemming from its equipment and for the involuntary manslaughter in Northern California in 2018, the deadliest corporate crime in US history, known to be guilty of 84 involuntary manslaughter.

The company has vowed to revamp its operations and focus more on security to avoid starting another catastrophic fire. But it is now being examined for its possible involvement in the deadly Zogg Fire. California investigators consider the company’s equipment to be a possible cause of the fire that killed four people and burned more than 56,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada.

The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection included some of the utility’s equipment in its investigation, PG&E said in a report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility filed a preliminary report of the incident with state regulators, stating in a statement that it was working with investigators. Cal Fire has not yet determined the cause of the fire.

Temperatures across the state are expected to rise throughout the week, with parts of the Central Valley nearing record highs, according to the National Weather Service. Dry winds are expected to sweep the Sacramento Valley at speeds of up to 30 mph as of Monday.

“A warming and drying trend will happen this week as high pressure builds up across the state,” PG&E officials said in a statement in which gusts in the mountains of the North Bay Area and Northern Sierra are at or over 50 miles / h were estimated.

Northern California was burned by historic forest fires that year, with 4 million acres burned. The August Complex, the largest fire in the state’s history, is still burning in the Mendocino National Forest on Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.

Parts of the region are already exposed to an increased fire risk with above-average temperatures and windy conditions. Air quality warnings remain in effect throughout the San Joaquin Valley and central California due to forest fires, according to the National Weather Service Forecasting Center in Hanford.

National Weather Service meteorologist David King said the winds built up in the northeast and blew offshore, leaving warm temperatures and dried fuel. The winds are expected to be strongest at high elevations in the North Bay Mountains, East Bay Hills, and Santa Cruz Mountains, King said.

“We’ll still see winds making it into the valleys, but it won’t be very strong or excessive,” he said. “If you have strong winds, you are very concerned about the tall fire. That will really stay in the higher elevations now. “

Temperatures in the Los Angeles area are expected to hit sultry highs again this week, with areas in the San Fernando Valley approaching 100 degrees. The beaches will float in the 80s, said weather service meteorologist Mike Wofford. A heat warning for a large part of the region is expected to come into force on Tuesday at 11 a.m. and, according to the weather service, will continue until Friday 5 p.m.

“It’ll just be hot and dry, not our usual morning low clouds and fog,” said Wofford.

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