The day of wrecked umbrellas
12:25 pm — The Mercury News reports that 395,000 PG&E customers have lost power — and that’s just in the Bay Area. Statewide, more than 750,000 customers of the utility lost their power at some point.
Outside the cafe I’m working from, two dogs cower in the heavy rain; one of them is small enough to take refuge under a mailbox.
12:15 pm — Updates from KCBS on transit in SF — K, L, M lines still stopped at West Portal Station after a woman was struck by a train this morning; BART still stopped between 24th St. and Daly City.
According to KCBS, all power is out along the coast between Pacifica and Half Moon Bay, and much of San Rafael is flooded and/or closed. Hwy. 101 is closed both directions at the I-580 junction; traffic is backed up 10 or 20 miles in each direction, but surface streets in San Rafael are either gridlocked or flooded. Hwy 101 could be closed until 11 pm tonight. Finally, both directions of the Richmond Bridge are closed.
Noon — Report downed power lines to 911 and to PG&E at 800-PGE-5000; if your power is out, call PG&E at 800-PGE-5002 to report it, or get an update on when it will be restored. More PG&E info. And call 311 in San Francisco to report clogged storm drains.
11:50 a.m. — Hwy. 101 in San Rafael will be closed until this evening, and Hwy. 17 at the Santa Cruz Mtns. summit is closed both ways. BART is still stopped between 24th St. and Daily City after a train ran over a tree branch near Glen Park.
You can see SFO status on the FAA website, which reports departure delays of over four hours and arrival delays of over two hours.
11:45 a.m. — KCBS reports that the Richmond Bridge is still closed with overturned trucks in both directions. SF Gate is updating storm reports as well.
11:40 a.m. — I’m now at a cafe at 21st and Bryant; the place is crammed with people using laptops. They had to move two tables away from windows that were leaking due to the high wind. Bryant St. is closed between 21st and 20th due to a downed power line, but that’s the least of our worries. Highways 35, 84 and 17 over the Santa Cruz Mtns are closed except for southbound 17.
11:30 a.m . — Muni service through the Sutro Tunnel is stopped after a woman crossing the street near West Portal Station was stuck by a Muni train, KCBS reports. She was under an umbrella and looking down at her feet, a police spokesman said, and didn’t see the oncoming streetcars. She was trapped under the train for several minutes and lost a leg.
BART service between 24th St. and Daly City is slow or stopped due to tree branches on the tracks.
11:10 a.m. — KCBS reports: flight cancellations at SFO and Sacramento airports (though not at Oakland); 285,000 PG&E customers have power out and the power company advises power won’t come on til tomorrow for many; US 101 at I-580 is closed, and so is the Richmond Bridge; route 17 in Santa Clara Co. is also closing due to downed power lines.
10:50 a.m. — The Richmond Bridge is closed altogether after wind blew over some semi trucks. KCBS radio reports that the town of Ross in Marin County — one of the towns on the backside of Mt. Tam which typically gets the most rainfall of the Bay Area when storms hit — has activated its emergency reverse-911 system to warm residents of rising creeks.
10:40 a.m. — The rain is so heavy that it almost obscures the sight of Bernal Hill even though I live at its foot. Sitting at my kitchen window I look down on my garden, and I’m glad that the young cherry trees have no leaves at this time of year. The grapevine on the back fence is also bare (and needs pruning), but calla lillies and iris, already blooming, are gratefully soaking up the rain.
10:00 a.m. — Power still out chez moi, but the gas works, so I use a match to light a burner and make coffee. KCBS radio is talking about closed bridges and highways; the Golden Gate Bridge Transit district has temporarily ceased bus and truck trips across the bridge, and all bay ferries are stopped.
9:30 a.m. — The cafe at 21st and Bryant still has power, and is doing a booming business as people use the wi-fi to telecommute. Not a chair is empty. The 25-Bryant bus heads south against the wind, and the rain coming off its roof makes it look like the bus is driving through a high-power wash.
9:20 a.m. — Coming back down Gough, I see a number of medium-sized tree branches down, split off at the trunk. One of the larger ones is on top of a small car, the others are simply in-between cars or on the sidewalk. Several newly-planted trees have also been uprooted. As I drive back across the Mission District, I see more and more destroyed and discarded umbrellas.
9:00 a.m. — I drive my wife to Bar Review class, travelling across the Mission, SOMA and the Tenderloin. The corner of 9th and Market, which is always a wind tunnel due to the configuration of the skyscrapers there, hosts a hurricane. Rain is blowing upward around the corner of one of the buildings, and the flag in front of Fox Plaza is also blowing straight up.
8:25 a.m. — The storm has been going on for hours already. Driving over Potrero Hill I see the power lines that stretch across Rhode Island St. whipping and waving in the wind — it’s amazing that the shops I pass still have power. Unfortunately for the residents, it’s garbage day, and their empty cans are strewn by the wind all up and down the street and sidewalks. When I reach my house on Alabama St. just south of Cesar Chavez, the power’s out.
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My office tower (Montgomery @ Market) was creaking like an old wooden ship all morning - eerie. Makes you wonder how the inhabitants of all the proposed uber-high towers slated for Rincon are going to feel during such ‘hand of God’ moments…
That’s exactly how my building was on Beale and Market with added ambiance of shaking windows…
An umbrella casualty, taken at Polk and Washington.
I have a class on the eight floor of 760 Market street and the windows kept shaking and we thought they might break. It was a pretty scary few hours and it was hard to concentrate.