North Bay power outages, downed trees and flooding brought by rainstorm

FAIRFAX, Calif. - Heavy rain across the Bay Area on Sunday created treacherous conditions on the roadways, flooding and scattered power outages. In Fairfax, more than 1500 customers were without power Sunday evening when a tree came toppling down onto power lines and a car. 

"When we get these storm nights it’s typically our number one call," said Oscar Arenas, Ross Valley Fire Dept. battalion chief.

No one inside the car or in the area was hurt, but half of Downtown Fairfax was left without power. 

Fire crews quickly shut down Meernaa Avenue as they waited for PG&E crews and a tree service to arrive. 

"I just came out of the house and wanted to make sure that something didn’t blow up or was on fire, so just took a quick walk down the street," said neighbor John Smith.

Neighbors like Smith were turned around by firefighters who went door to door asking people to shelter in place.

"The first thing people want to do when there is an emergency of this type, people want to come out and lookee loo and kind of see what’s going on, but that’s the most dangerous part, because we don’t know if these lines that go on the ground are de-energized," said Arenas.

PG&E estimated service in the area would be restored by Monday morning at 12:15 AM.

The heavy rain also made roadways slick and sent cars at times spinning out, including one car that slid off a back road in Petaluma. Police said the driver managed to walk away.

At Goodman Building Supply in Mill Valley, people stocked up on everything from flood barriers to tarps. A flood advisory was issued for the area.

"We’ve got quite a lot of water coming down the hill and coming under the house so just had to place the sump pump," said Ben Obrien of Mill Valley.

Even the hardware store itself was in storm prep mode.

"We have our sump pumps, ready, working all through the building you probably see." said Victorio Fernandez, a manager at Goodman Building Supply, which also had sand bags around the building. "Two or three bags high around the building, hopefully it doesn’t go over that, you know, water cannot be predicted."