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The storms that have pummeled Morgan Hill and the South Bay since last Friday brought plenty of traffic hazards and headaches, power outages and flooding on roadways and private properties throughout town.While neighborhoods in some communities to the south—notably Gilroy and Hollister—saw vast power outages, residential evacuations and emergency rescues due to the flooding, Morgan Hill seems to have escaped more than 8 inches of rain over a five-day period with no major widespread damages or injuries.The good news is that this season’s rainfall has already surpassed the annual average for this area, which is a hopeful sign that local water supplies will be plentiful this summer, according to Santa Clara Valley Water District officials.“These storms are providing natural recharge and are helping to fill our reservoirs, which will certainly have a positive impact on groundwater supplies,” said SCVWD spokesman Marty Grimes. “In 2016, our groundwater storage improved significantly due to the community’s efforts to reduce water use (during the last four years of drought) and above-normal groundwater replenishment by the water district.”Almost all of the district’s 10 reservoirs were at or exceeding capacity as of Jan. 11, according to the SCVWD website valleywater.org. The district’s largest reservoir—Anderson Reservoir in Morgan Hill—has to stay below about two-thirds of its full capacity due to seismic restrictions imposed by the state’s Division of Dam Safety. At times during this week’s storms, the release pipe at the bottom of the dam was releasing water at full blast into Coyote Creek, creating a dramatic gush of rapids into the northerly flowing waterway.Precipitation is also above average statewide, another encouraging sign for local supplies because the water district—a wholesale water supplier—relies on sources in other parts of the state to serve nearly 2 million residents and businesses in Santa Clara County. The SCVWD’s allocation so far this year from the State Water Project—a network of water sources and storage facilities that provides water for numerous participating agencies—is about 45 percent of the annual total, Grimes said. That’s up from about 15 percent the same time last year.But Grimes cautioned it’s still early in the rainy season, and the district will not know what the final allocation from the SWP will be until early spring. Thus, the district is not in a hurry to ease back on water-saving restrictions put in place at the height of the recent four-year drought.“If February and March are bone dry, all of these ‘above average’ indicators could fall to average or below average,” Grimes said. “That’s why we are cautious about prematurely ending our call for drought response efforts or reductions.”Wet JanuaryAccording to Chris Henry, a local weather enthusiast who runs the “Morgan Hill Rainfall” page on Facebook, the series of storms that started Jan. 6 dumped nearly 9 inches where he takes measurements in southwest Morgan Hill. Sunday, Jan. 8, saw the worst of it, with 3.36 inches. Tuesday evening’s storms walloped Morgan Hill again with another 2.53 inches of rain.So far in January, Morgan Hill has already seen 12.67 inches of rain, according to Henry. For the 2016-17 rainy season thus far, Henry has recorded 25.26 inches, which is about the annual average.Morgan Hill Police and city staff issued numerous warnings via email and social media about road closures, downed trees, power outages and flooding during the peak of the rainfall this week. West Little Llagas Creek spilled over its banks Sunday night—flooding the downtown—and threatened to do so again Tuesday.Both Sunday and Tuesday evenings’ storms placed the entire county under flash flood warnings. Residents and business owners frantically gathered sandbags at locations throughout town where the free supplies were available.Social media users posted photos and videos of flooding at Nordstrom Elementary School and the nearby Nordstrom Park on East Dunne Avenue. Some Facebook photos even showed residents floating down the flooded streets in paddleboats.Flood protection on the wayThe flooding in this week’s storms serves to some as a reminder of the need for the water district’s Upper Llagas Creek Flood Protection project. When complete, the nearly 14-mile long, $80 million project will provide 100-year flood protection for properties from Buena Vista Avenue in Gilroy to just beyond Llagas Road in north Morgan Hill.The flood protection project has been in the pre-planning stages since the 1950s, but a report by SCVWD to city staff in November 2016 stated that planning is done and construction on the first of two phases can begin this summer.The project relies heavily on funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, not all of which has materialized. Local sponsors SCVWD and the City of Morgan Hill have fronted local funds to complete the planning and design processes, in hopes of being reimbursed by federal authorities in the future. The water district is also still in the process of acquiring private properties needed for the project’s right-of-way.“When that project is completed it will remove the flooding problems in the West Little Llagas Creek corridor that have continually plagued the city,” Morgan Hill Public Works Director Karl Bjarke said Jan. 10.The “most immediate” benefits of the flood control project will be seen in neighborhoods near the intersection of Hale and Wright avenues, downtown Morgan Hill, the Bisceglia/Monterey neighborhood, the La Crosse area and the Monterey/Watsonville Road intersection, Bjarke added. The latter of these was underneath two feet of water at one point Jan. 8, during the peak of Sunday’s afternoon storm.“This flooding we are experiencing is the reason the city council and the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board reps meet quarterly (or more often as needed) and remain focused on completing” the local flood protection project, Bjarke added in an email.The Upper Llagas Creek Flood Protection project will widen and expand the creek by digging large channels and installing culverts and tunnels that will capture the runoff from large storms such as those that drenched South County this week.The project will not prevent flooding that occurs during heavy rains in eastern Morgan Hill, Bjarke noted.The National Weather Service website, forecast.weather.gov, shows more rain is likely Jan. 12, but mostly sunny and clear through the coming weekend in Morgan Hill.

The City of Morgan Hill and other authorities notified residents that a flash flood warning is in effect in Santa Clara County until late in the evening Jan. 10.

The Morgan Hill City Council will spend its evening Jan. 11—and maybe even the early hours of the next morning—interviewing up to 30 applicants for the vacant fifth seat on the dais.The lengthy list of candidates submitted their names and qualifications to the city clerk before the Jan. 6 deadline. The applicants are seeking to fill the seat left vacant by former Councilman Gordon Siebert, who resigned Dec. 8.Shortly after Siebert’s resignation, the four remaining councilmembers approved a selection process that will play out at the Jan. 11 special meeting. This includes allotting each applicant a maximum of five minutes to introduce themselves and make their case as to why they should sit on the council. If necessary, the council will ask follow-up or clarifying questions after each applicant’s five-minute pitch, Mayor Steve Tate said.The council does not have a specific list or set of questions in mind to ask the applicants, Tate noted. Any questions would likely be specific to what an applicant said in their introduction or what they have already submitted to the city clerk on written application forms.City officials will also ask the field of applicants to sit in a conference room adjacent to the council chambers when they are not being interviewed by the council during the Jan. 11 public meeting, Tate added.The list of applicants, which is much longer than Tate expected, includes at least one former councilmember and candidates for other local offices, as well as some newcomers to the process.The single agenda item for the Jan. 11 meeting says after interviewing all the applicants, the council will discuss the results of the interviews and narrow down the field to the top three. From there, the council will discuss the decision further and then select a finalist, who would be sworn in at the Jan. 18 council meeting.The selected new council member will serve the remainder of Siebert’s unexpired term, which ends in December 2018. The seat will be subject to a regularly scheduled election in November 2018.The Jan. 11 council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at council chambers, 17575 Peak Ave.The full list of applicants, in the order they appear on the meeting agenda, is below. More information about the candidates, including their full application forms and resumes, can be viewed on the city’s website, morganhill.ca.gov. The applications include individual answers to questions about the candidates’ qualifications and why they want to serve on the council.• Angela Young, a visual artist and freelance journalist;• Caitlin Jachimowicz, a criminal attorney based in San Jose;•Cappy Myers, an environmental health and safety manager;• Carla Ernest, a clinical project management consultant;• Carol Fredrickson, a Santa Clara Valley Water District retiree;• Chris Harrington, a retired firefighter with the Santa Clara County Fire District;• Daniel Kenney, a real estate broker and life/health agent;• Danielle Davenport, a board member and advisor for StratusVR, who ran for the Gavilan College Board of Trustees in the Nov. 8 election;• David Jefferson, an engineer with Synopsys Inc.;• Erik Hansen, a marketing director for eBay;• Gavin Daprile, an engineering manager for Verizon;• John McKay, a retired construction contractor and Morgan Hill Planning Commissioner (and a columnist for the Morgan Hill Times);• Joseph Carrillo, and entertainer and producer who has run in numerous city council and mayoral elections in Morgan Hill;• Kirk Bertolet, an electrician and signal maintainer for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, and a mayoral candidate in the Nov. 8 election;• Maria Guadalupe de Anda Antunes, a self-employed real estate agent/broker;• Marilyn Librers, Executive Director of the Pauchon Research Foundation, and a former council member who served two terms from 2008 to 2016;• Mario Banuelos, a retired analyst with the City of San Jose, and a candidate for council in the Nov. 8 election who was endorsed by Tate and sitting Mayor Pro Temp Larry Carr;• Mike Brusa, a retired superintendent of schools;• Mitan Gandhi, retired from a semiconductor company;• Natalie Prcevski, a solution engineering manager with CenturyLink;•  Norm Alexander, a novelist and decorated U.S. Army veteran;• Paul Pascoal, a Santa Clara County civil engineer;• Prithpal Khajuria, an employee at Intel Corporation;• Ryan Maggio, an account executive;• Sanjar Chakamian, a self-employed management consultant;• Theresa Pittman, a nurse practitioner;• Thomas Spitters (no occupation listed);As of Jan. 9, the clerk’s office was in the process of confirming the voter registration qualifications for the following three applicants:• Monica Pette, Associate Counsel with West Marine Products, Inc.;• Troy Knapp, an account manager with ADP;• Yvonne Martinez, an urban planner.

Although police and city officials reported “significant” flooding and traffic hazards throughout Morgan Hill due to heavy rainfall Jan. 8, no major damages or injuries resulted.Downtown Morgan Hill saw some flooding during a short period at the peak of the storm early Sunday evening, but no downtown businesses seemed to suffer major water damage, according to Morgan Hill Communications Manager Maureen Tobin.The Santa Clara Valley Water District reported that West Little Llagas Creek, which runs along the west side of downtown Morgan Hill, began to overflow about 2 p.m. That cresting of the creek was the cause of much of the storm-related flooding, but the creek and floodwaters began to recede by 5 p.m.Tobin added that a couple of downtown business owners saw enough of a threat to place sandbags outside their front doors before the floodwaters began to subside.Throughout the afternoon Jan. 8, until about 7:30 p.m., Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Martin were under flash flood warnings called by the National Weather Service. Streets and properties along Llagas Creek saw the most flooding, but high standing waters were seen on the east side of town as well.Social media users posted photos and videos of flooding at Nordstrom Elementary School and the nearby Nordstrom Park on East Dunne Avenue. The intersection of Hill Road and East Dunne was one of several intersections throughout town that were underwater during the brunt of the Jan. 8 storm. Watsonville Road at Monterey Road was reportedly underneath two feet of water at one point in the afternoon.Some Facebook photos even showed residents floating down the flooded streets in paddleboats.Morgan Hill Police Department posted a lengthy list of intersections and roadways that were closed during the heavy rainfall, but these traffic hazards also receded as the rain lightened up.“Everything was clear by 10:00 or 10:30 last night,” Tobin said Monday morning. “That last big wallop yesterday afternoon pushed things over for yesterday evening.”Although another storm is forecast to hit the South Bay Jan. 10, city and water district officials are not expecting it to be as harrowing as the Jan. 8 deluge.“People should remember we have saturated ground and hillsides, but no one is anticipating the rain to come will push our creeks to the flooding point,” Tobin added.More than four inches of rain came down over a three-day period (Jan. 6-8) in Morgan Hill and more is yet to come with a new storm front expected to hit late Tuesday morning and stick around through early Wednesday, according to Steve Anderson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.The heaviest rain is forecast to touch down between 4 p.m. and midnight Jan. 10 accompanied by increasing winds, but dry, calmer weather is expected to follow through the weekend, Anderson noted.“The entire Bay Area had a pretty good lashing this last weekend,” Anderson said. “The rain forecast panned out as expected. The last time we saw this much rainfall was about 10 years ago in 2006.”According to SCVWD’s website, valleywater.org, the Uvas Reservoir gauge read 4.09 inches in the last 24 hours for a 29.53 total. The Edmundson Avenue gauge read 3.07 inches over last 24 hours, with a season total so far of 19.53 inches.Uvas Reservoir was at 105.1 percent its capacity or 10,337.1 acre feet of a 9,835 capacity. Chesbro climbed to 6,963.2 acre feet of its 7,945 capacity while Anderson rose to 43,998.7 acre feet of its 90,373 capacity, according to valleywater.org.Residents can still pick up sand and sandbags at three locations in Morgan Hill: the city’s corporation yard on Edes Court; a vacant lot next to El Toro Fire station at Monterey and Old Monterey roads; and in the southeast corner of the Caltrain parking lot on Depot Street.

Residents, motorists and businesses in Morgan Hill have experienced “significant impacts” due to the current and ongoing storm that has blanketed the South Bay this weekend.

With heavy rains and possible flooding forecast for the coming weekend, City of Morgan Hill staff wanted to remind residents there are a few simple things they can do to prepare for potentially disastrous weather.Atop the list is making sure your family has a “family emergency plan” and everyone in the household is aware of it, and clearing debris from grates and drains, according to an email sent out by city staff Jan. 6.Residents and business owners who are concerned about possible flooding on their property can acquire sandbags from three locations in Morgan Hill: 100 Edes Court, next to the city corporation yard; Old Monterey Road, next to the El Toro Fire Station; and the southeast corner of the Depot Street parking lot.The locations are open 24/7 and have sand, empty bags and shovels available.Residents are also encouraged to have their flashlights handy in the event of a power outage, city staff cautioned.When on the roads, drivers should avoid any paved surfaces where standing or running water is present, according to city staff. Drivers should use extra caution in general when driving in the rain.For more information about flood resources, visit the Santa Clara Valley Water District website, valleywater.org.For more information about the weather, visit the National Weather Service website at forecast.weather.gov.The NWS is predicting 3 to 5 inches of rain throughout the weekend, as heavy rains are forecast starting late Friday night through early Monday morning.

The Environmental Impact Report for the San Martin Cordoba Center Islamic mosque project is underway, and interested parties are asked to submit comments on the “scope and content” of the study to county planners by Jan. 23.The EIR itself, being conducted by Santa Clara County as the lead agency, will not be complete for public review for several more months. Comments and questions currently sought by county staff relate to the EIR’s “Notice of Preparation,” which was posted Dec. 9, 2016.The South Valley Islamic Community, based in San Martin, applied for the project early last year. The project, proposed at a 16-acre undeveloped parcel near the intersection of Monterey Road and California Avenue, would consist of a two-story, 9,000-square-foot mosque; a two-story, 14,500-square-foot multipurpose building; a four-acre Islamic cemetery; a one-third-acre campground; and additional support and ancillary structures, according to the county’s NOP document.The Cordoba Center “is intended to provide a central religious and cultural center for the multi-ethnic Muslim population in Southern Santa Clara County,” the county’s notice states.The purpose of an EIR is to analyze all potential impacts of a project to its surrounding environment and community, according to county staff. These include potential impacts to groundwater, traffic, wildlife, air quality, noise and other categories. The EIR will also make suggestions on how to mitigate any potentially significant impacts, and consider alternatives to the project.There are about 400 members of the SVIC, according to the county’s notice. “Based on this estimate, maximum attendance at weekly religious and cultural events, such as Friday Prayers, to be held at the Cordoba Center is generally anticipated to be 300 individuals per event,” the NOP continues. Occasionally, for larger annual events such as the Eid holiday prayers and community picnics, attendance at the Cordoba Center could reach up to 500 individuals per event.Events and regularly scheduled activities would occur between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., primarily on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The site would be open to SVIC members to worship at all times, the county’s notice reads.The Cordoba Center has generated ongoing skepticism from South County residents who fear the project will be significantly larger than typical existing commercial or religious uses in the rural, unincorporated town of San Martin.Next door to the Cordoba Center is proposed the Patel RV Park, also on an undeveloped parcel. This project would add a 124-stall RV park to the property. This project is also working its way through the county’s planning process, and a community meeting on the proposal is scheduled for 7 p.m. Jan. 6 at the South County Office building, 80 W. Highland Ave.Some San Martin residents are concerned that having the Cordoba Center and Patel RV Park operating simultaneously right next to each other will impact the area more than the roads and infrastructure can handle.County staff have said the EIR and planning reviews of these projects will determine if that is the case, and recommend solutions to the impacts if necessary.Comments on the Cordoba Center NOP must be submitted to the county by 5 p.m. Jan. 23. Comments can be sent, emailed or telephoned to County of Santa Clara County Department of Planning and Development, Attention: Jim Reilly, County Government Center, 70 West Hedding Street, San Jose, CA 95110; phone at (408) 299-5799; or email [email protected]. 

Reckless vehiclePolice cited a teen driver for speed contest when a witness reported his Subaru and another vehicle speeding in the area of Main Avenue and Monterey Road. The recklessness was reported 8:17 p.m. Dec. 30.RobberyTwo suspects, described as black males, ran up to two female victims in front of Starbucks, 1041 Cochrane Road, grabbed their purses and fled the scene. The suspects fled into a gray sedan and left the area. The contents of the purses, stolen by the thieves, included a cell phone, credit cards, cash and about $500 worth of gift cards. The crime was reported 9:23 p.m. Dec. 30.Domestic violencePolice arrested a woman who was fighting with a man outside the Chevron gas station, 825 E. Dunne Ave. A witness called police to report the couple physically fighting about 10:55 p.m. Dec. 30.Petty theftSomeone stole a roll of scratcher lottery tickets from the 7-Eleven store, 295 W. Main Ave. The suspect grabbed the book of about 60 scratchers, worth $5 each, from the counter and ran out the door. The crime was reported 1:16 p.m. Dec. 31.FraudA male victim said his credit card was stolen the night he was arrested at a Morgan Hill hotel in September 2016. The man said someone charged about $730 to his Target Mastercard without his authorization. The crime was reported 1:38 p.m. Dec. 29.Auto burglaryA thief or thieves broke the door handle on a Ford Ranger and entered the vehicle before stealing about $5,000 worth of tools and clothing from inside. The vehicle was parked at a business on Butterfield Boulevard. The crime was reported 8:25 a.m. Jan. 2.DUI accidentOne driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI after causing a three-car collision at the intersection of Butterfield Boulevard and Tennant Avenue. The allegedly impaired driver of a Toyota pickup rear-ended a convertible Ford Mustang, which in turn rear-ended a Honda SUV. No significant injuries were reported. The accident was reported 9:17 a.m. Jan. 2.All subjects are innocent until proven guilty. Information is compiled from public records.

The transformation of downtown Morgan Hill is not even close to complete, but recent additions and changes in ownership of longtime establishments are giving patrons a taste of what’s in store for the neighborhood.