A Flash Flood Warning was issued for Petaluma until 9:15 this morning. Penngrove Stream is topping its bank. Small rivers and streams are also at increased risk for flooding, especially in the upper Sacramento River region.
Power was knocked out on the Bay Bridge and the Richmond/San Rafael Bridge. The metering lights were also out on the Bay Bridge. There have been partial outages reported on the San Mateo Bridge and the Carquinez Bridge as well.
Officials say the storm could cause flooding on roads and trigger rock and mud slides. On the coast there are gale warnings and small-craft and high-surf advisories.
Thousands of people around the Bay Area are waking up without power. PG&E says more than 4,500 customers are affected by outages in Marin County. More than 4,300 customers are without electricity in San Mateo, more than 2,800 in Napa County. And, nearly 2,500 customers are without power in Santa Clara County.
Crews around the Bay Area are expecting a busy morning cleaning up downed trees as the wind and rain pick up. The rain not only saturates the ground, it also waters down trees, making them more top heavy and prone to toppling over in the wind. There have been several downed trees in the past two days already, including one just east of Windsor on Eastside Road.
"It's just over saturated it was an old oak tree. Once the water gets up in the leaves the weight tips them over," said Sonoma Co. Road Crew Mike Riker.
In Marin County, emergency crews chopped up a downed tree in Lagunitas last night. The large tree went down in the middle of the street and brought down phone and power lines with it.
Administrators with the Santa Rosa City School District are meeting with maintenance officials to decide whether to cancel classes because of the weather this morning. The school board held a special meeting last night and decided to issue a warning to students, parents and staff about the potential for closing individual schools or a district wide shut down. According to the press-democrat, they should decide within the hour whether conditions are safe for students and staff.
There are major flight delays later this morning at San Francisco International Airport. Heavy winds along with the rain and low visibility slowed the air traffic yesterday; 73 flights were cancelled yesterday morning.
