Eight families were evacuated from a Bisceglia Avenue apartment
complex after the season’s first storm dumped nearly three inches
of rain on Morgan Hill in less than 12 hours.
Eight families were evacuated from a Bisceglia Avenue apartment complex after the season’s first storm dumped nearly three inches of rain on Morgan Hill in less than 12 hours.
They either went to stay with relatives or friends, to the Morgan Hill Presbyterian Church or were given a voucher from the American Red Cross for a hotel stay. About 30 people were affected.
As rain continued to pour, residents milled about in the murky water, commiserating with their neighbors and carrying belongings to waiting Jeeps and other sturdy vehicles.
Beatriz Moreno, 30, said she’s lived upstairs at the complex, which overlooks an empty lot and Monterey Road, for two years. This is the second time she’s been evacuated, she said. Like the other residents, Moreno seemed nonplussed by the move.
Four-year-old Denise Pamona talked excitedly in Spanish as she stood on the second floor balcony awaiting transport to either the church or a relative’s. She pointed to the Morgan Hill police’s rescue vehicle.
On the ground level, residents sloshed in and out of their apartments, each inundated with more than a foot of standing water, carrying luggage, diaper bags and other belongings to stay with them overnight as they waited for the water to dissipate.
Art Soza, a housing rehabilitation coordinator with the city, said the water would move out in about three hours, leaving behind recently renovated homes now water logged. Soza said these four downstairs apartments were his first project, and it involved building a brick wall three feet high to stave off flood water. But, Tuesday’s rains easily spilled over this barrier.
The property owner considered renovating the complex to prevent flooded apartments, but decided against the $3 million project, Soza said.
Elsewhere, sand bags and plastic sheets, as well as a movable “flooded” sign, futilely guarded the front entrance of Trail Dust Barbecue at 17240 Monterey Street, and rising water crept inside the building shortly after 5 p.m.
The city of Morgan Hill ran out of emergency signs to close roads due to flooding this afternoon. Standing rain water covered the top of parked vehicles’ tires on the south end of town, near the Morgan Hill Post Office on Monterey Road.
Standing water in Ester Collins’ northeast Morgan Hill neighborhood was deep enough for her to go out for a boat ride down Fountain Avenue.
“We’re just going down the street in our kayak,” Collins said on the phone.
Emergency dispatch radio operators at the Morgan Hill Police Department were too busy answering calls from the public to list the areas in town that have been troubled by the torrential rain. But some that are closed, based on emergency radio transmissions, include Llagas Creek Road, where Llagas Creek began to flood about 3:40 p.m.; Monterey Road north of town, near Cochrane Road; Old Monterey Road from Monterey to Llagas roads; and Butterfield Boulevard at several locations including at San Pedro and Diana avenues.
City Manager Ed Tewes said road closures included Watsonville at Monterey; Monterey at Burnett Avenue and Wright Avenue from Del Monte to Hale avenues.
The Santa Clara County Fire Department closed Butterfield Boulevard at several intersections, including at Diana and San Pedro avenues this afternoon.
The intersection of Church Street and Bisceglia Avenue was closed about 10:30 a.m. and remained closed throughout the day.
A CalFire dispatch operator said personnel have responded to numerous traffic accidents, calls for residential flooding, and road flooding.
No significant injuries have been reported.
City public works crews used portable pumps to attempt to disperse water that collected in areas that lacked adequate drainage. One such pump, in front of Trail Dust, couldn’t keep up with streams of water overflowing a retention hole next to the building. Public works crews were dispatched Trail Dust Barbecue and Glory Days Bar & Grill as well as other areas where flooding threatened traffic and structures.
By about 3:30 p.m. Morgan Hill Public Works ran out of emergency signs indicating flooded and closed roads, and began acquiring more from the city of San Jose, according to operators at the police dispatch center.
Live Oak High School canceled all its athletic events scheduled for Tuesday because of the heavy rainfall.
About 6 a.m. Tuesday, shortly after the storm started, about 2,600 Morgan Hill residents experienced a short power outage, according to Matt Nauman of PG&E. Power was restored by 7:10 a.m., after crews from the electricity company repaired the storm-related disruptions, and at about 10:45 a.m. exactly eight customers throughout South County were powerless.
Other areas where public works and emergency personnel responded local roads were flooding, starting about 10:30 a.m., include a flood control canal just west of Monterey Road, near Watsonville Road that was almost completely full, as well as the area surrounding the intersection of Calle Enrique and La Crosse Drive that was “completely flooded,” according to a Morgan Hill dispatch operator. Railroad Drive was flooded at Tennant Avenue about 10:50 a.m.
Flooding was also reported at Monterey Road and Burnett Avenue, Main and Del Monte avenues, and on the 1000 block of West Edmundson Avenue.
More than 2.7 inches of rain fell on Morgan Hill by 6 p.m., according to the Santa Clara Valley Water District which monitors a local rain gauge on its Web site.
The storm won’t start winding down until about midnight tonight, according to Diana Henderson of the National Weather Service.
The NWS reported wind gusts of 56 miles per hour atop Mt. Hamilton east of Morgan Hill, and gusts of about 22 miles per hour in San Martin.
The season’s first storm that will hover over the entire Bay Area until tonight night has dropped more than 8 inches of rain in parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to Henderson. At least another inch of rain is expected in Morgan Hill before the storm dies down, based on forecasts.
Wednesday’s forecast portends “breezy” conditions with scattered showers, with sunny skies returning by Thursday, Henderson said.
As of about 3:45 p.m. today about 46,000 customers in the Bay Area, and 156,000 in PG&E’s entire service area were without power, Nauman said.
The city activated its Emergency Operations Center at the Morgan Hill Police station on Vineyard Boulevard about 4:45 p.m., according to Morgan Hill Emergency Services Director Jennifer Ponce.
She said dispatch operators have been “inundated” with calls reporting fallen tree branches, car accidents, and flooding.
“Our efforts began this morning as power outages were reported. Once we hit the commute hour, we were completely overwhelmed,” Ponce said.
The rain may have played a role in a single vehicle crash about 5:30 p.m. on U.S. 101. A woman driving northbound in a blue minivan was passing a car in the fast lane just north of Cochrane Road going about 65 mph, according to a witness. As she passed, she lost control, careened into the center divide spun around and traveled across all four lanes of traffic. The van then struck a concrete barrier to the right of the slow lane and bounced back into the second lane facing north. There were no injuries.
Crossroads Christian School on Wright Avenue was evacuated about 11 a.m., when that road closed due to flooding. Ponce said that was the only local school that was significantly affected by the storm.
The city’s volunteer CERT emergency responders were out in the field most of the day, assisting with the placement of sand bags in areas prone to flooding. And even though local communication lines were never disrupted during the storm, amateur radio operators were dispatched to the EOC and out in the field, Ponce said.
“We’re just managing our resources and keeping an eye on the storm,” she said.
