UPDATES: Bay Area Christmas storm brings downed trees, power outages, road closures

A portion of southbound Highway 101 in San Jose is closed Thursday morning due to an overturned gasoline big rig truck.

Officials say there was an incident between the big rig truck towing two trailers of gasoline and a pickup truck at 5:30 a.m. near the Hellyer Ave. exit.

They say weather was a contributing factor with the crash with flooding on the road. The driver of the big rig was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.

CHP says the pickup truck driver slowed for flooding, and the tanker truck driver behind was going at an unsafe speed and did not see the pickup truck slow down. The tanker truck driver overcorrected to avoid the tanker truck and then overturned.

The overturned tanker is leaking gasoline onto the road, which is now contaminated with a mixture of water and gasoline. Crews need to pump the water and gas and get the big rig uprighted before they are able to reopen the road.

CHP estimates the road won't be reopened until 4 or 5 p.m. Thursday.

Officials say there have been numerous crashes due to weather and urge drivers to take caution.

Flooding shut down some lanes of state Highway 87 near state Highway 85 in San Jose early Thursday morning, prompting authorities to urge drivers to avoid the area.

Around 5:10 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said two southbound lanes of Highway 87 north of Highway 85 were flooded, creating risky driving conditions. An estimated time for reopening was not immediately available.

Drivers were advised to seek alternate routes or use caution since the water on the roadway can be difficult to see and may cause vehicles to lose control.

Flooding also forced the closure of a portion of state Highway 24 in Orinda early Thursday morning as heavy rain continued to soak the Bay Area. That has since reopened.

A powerful storm system has brought periods of heavy rain and strong winds across the Bay Area. Forecasters have warned that high rain rates can quickly overwhelm roadways, leading to sudden flooding, especially in low-lying areas and near creeks.

Drivers are urged to avoid flooded roads, follow closures and detours, and use alternate routes when possible.

Flash Flood Warnings and Severe Thunderstorm Warnings are being issued in areas across the Bay Area Christmas morning, December 25.

The National Weather Service has posted Flash Flood Warnings until 6 a.m. for San Francisco, Daly City, South San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, and Richmond. They also posted warnings for San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara until 6:15 a.m.

The NWS posted Severe Thunderstorm Warnings until 3:45 a.m. for San Jose, Milpitas, and Alum Rock warning of wind gusts up to 70 mph.

More than 125,000 PG&E customers lost power across Northern and Central California amid stormy weather overnight that saw some wind gusts above 100 mph in some areas, the utility said Wednesday morning.

PG&E officials said crews had restored power to nearly 10,000 of the affected customers as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, following the storm that arrived late Tuesday night.

Heavy rain and strong winds battered the region, with peak gusts of 109 mph measured near Humboldt, more than 91 mph near Big Sur, and more than 84 mph near Santa Cruz, according to PG&E.

Crews are working to restore power to more customers during the day Wednesday before another storm is expected to arrive overnight Wednesday into Christmas Day on Thursday, according to the utility.

People can view PG&E's outage map or report an outage by visiting https://pgealerts.alerts.pge.com/.