Emergency officials warn residents to prepare for more potential flooding, downed trees
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - Bay Area emergency management officials are warning residents to prepare for yet another winter storm, this time, an atmospheric river that is approaching the Bay Area Thursday and threatens to bring another deluge that could cause flooding and more downed trees and power lines.
Natalie Carey knows the calm before the storm is critical for being properly prepared. Carey is co-owner of World Tree Service and the Small World Tree Company located in Marin County.
"Getting chainsaws, new chains, gassed up, tools ready," said Carey, "Getting our generators ready, so we can keep taking calls."
"My cell phone's on all the time so if someone calls in the middle of night, I'm going to answer," said Carey.
"We're prepping everything right now to potentially go out Thursday or Friday," said Aaron Corbiere, Logistics Manager at the Small World Tree Company.
Carey's team is still catching up on calls from this year's relentless string of storms. She says just last weekend her team lifted a giant tree that toppled onto a house in Woodacre and broke through the roof, crashing into a bedroom.
"Taking a big redwood off a house with a 90-ton crane," said Carey, "That was from a storm about 10 days ago.
Throughout the Bay Area, many cities are refilling sandbagging stations.
"I actually just got rid of them because I thought we were done for the season, and now I'm back for 10 more," said Greg Weiner, a San Francisco resident.
Woody Baker-Cohn, Assistant Emergency Manager of the Marin County Office of Emergency Management says they are monitoring the weather closely and are beginning to ramp up resources, something he advises residents to do as well.
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"Now's the time to get sandbags and other things you need to prepare., get extra food, .get ahead of the curve on that," said Baker-Cohn.
Baker-Cohn says it's also important for residents to monitor county and city social media accounts and websites such as their new Marin County portal.
Another concern with this particular storm, he says, is the timing with the tides.
"There's a high tide at the Golden Gate about 1 a.m. early Friday morning, so if that happens to coincide with a lot of rain coming down, that affects drainage," said Baker-Cohn.
Most at risk, he says is the area around Marin City which has just one point of access. After past storm surges caused flooding there, Baker-Cohn says they have now installed monitors in manhole covers to sense when water levels reach dangerously high levels.