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Flooded roadways. Rising waterways. Downed trees. Power outages. Residents in the Tri-Valley, like much of the Bay Area, faced some — or all — of those amid a heavy rainstorm throughout Saturday.
As the significant rainfall of the morning and afternoon of New Year’s Eve eased into lighter precipitation in the evening, a number of roads in and around the Tri-Valley were left closed into at least Sunday due to flooding. The saturated conditions got so serious Saturday to the point that many law enforcement and public works agencies in the Bay Area urged people not to drive unless absolutely necessary.
Residents, police and fire officials throughout the region shared stories, photographs and videos of rising water levels in neighborhoods and local creeks on Saturday.
San Ramon Valley Fire reported responding to more than 100 flood- or storm-related incidents.
That included severe flooding in a neighborhood on Fircrest Lane in San Ramon from where 13 people were evacuated and taken to a local senior center, according to San Ramon police. The flooding there resulted in Alcosta Boulevard being closed from the Iron Horse Regional Trail to Stagecoach Road into Sunday.
In greater Pleasanton, Foothill Road was closed in both directions at Castlewood Drive for approximately 24 hours Saturday into Sunday. The Valley Avenue-Stanley Boulevard-Bernal Avenue intersection was among the many other streets in town impacted by flooding.
Niles Creek was at flood stage by late Saturday afternoon, as was the Arroyo de la Laguna.
Livermore police posted videos of flooding at Livermore and Portola avenues, just one example of the numerous roadways in the city to see localized flooding, according to the department. County roads in the unincorporated Tri-Valley were also highly affected by standing water.
Danville officials reported flooding incidents across the town as well as high-rising creek activity, with some road closures continuing until Sunday morning.
A fallen eucalyptus tree on Blackhawk Road between Holly Oak Drive and Jillian Way impacted the major roadway in unincorporated Danville and also knocked down power lines, according to Contra Costa County Public Works.
A portion of Interstate 580 just west of Dublin saw a mudslide block multiple lanes. County crews were also still working to address mudslide conditions on Highway 84 near Sunol that carried over from Friday. Further west, I-580 was closed in the San Leandro area due to flooding Saturday.
The rain ceased on New Year’s Day, but the Bay Area forecast projects the wet weather will continue throughout most days over the next two weeks.
Editor’s note: Information from the Bay City News Service was used in this report. DanvilleSanRamon freelancer Tim Hunt contributed to this story.
