Bay Area storm filling creeks, rivers

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ByDavid Louie KGO logo
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Bay Area storm filling creeks, rivers
While there were no reports of mudslides or any major flooding in urban areas Monday, the runoff from the storm has certainly changed local creeks and rivers.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- It's been raining throughout the Bay Area and that rain has to runoff somewhere. While there were no reports of mudslides or any major flooding in urban areas, the runoff certainly is changing local creeks and rivers.

PHOTOS: Storm rolls through Bay Area

The Guadalupe River in San Jose is a major channel that gets runoff from surrounding hills out to San Francisco Bay.

Thanks to the rain, the river is once again looking like a raging river and so are other waterways.

The ducks look happy and the spillway next to Los Gatos Creek Trail drew plenty of attention. "It's been a few years since I've seen this much rain, I mean this much water in the creek," Campbell resident Ellie Monk said.

A jogger welcomed the rain, although he wasn't ready for it. "I actually left my sneakers out last night and I woke up about 5 a.m. and they were completely drenched, which I was kind of bummed out about, but you got to look at the bright side, we haven't had rain in a while, so it's a good thing," San Jose resident Miguel Flaquer said.

READ MORE: Bay Area storm causes accidents, causes traffic delays

The rain created some street flooding, turning a traffic lane on Meridian Avenue into a lake.

There was a power outage also on Stockton Avenue in San Jose.

The rain also justified homeowners who took the plunge and had rainwater collection systems installed. "A 2,000 square-foot roof with one inch of rain will be about 1,200 gallons of water," Rainsavers owner Brad Daniel said.

Rainsavers custom designs systems using a variety of tanks and barrels. "Most homeowners in the Bay Area don't have the space to do large, elaborate systems, but these tanks are anywhere from 200 to 1,000 gallons, they fit, and they're not complex," Daniel said.

Daniel said the average systems cost about $1,000.

Homeowner Sabine Trammell said her friends were skeptical at first. "They look at me kind of funny when I tell them how quickly the barrels fill, but I usually just bring them over and show them the system and when you knock on them, you can hear the hollowness in the very top and you can hear that there is something in it in the bottom," she said.

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