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.
