Novato yards flood due to severe storm

NOVATO, Calif. (KGO) -- Marin officials said late Thursday night that flood waters were beginning to recede.

Earlier in the day, Garden Court in Novato would have been more appropriately named Pond Place, due to flooding from the storm. A woman waded through water nearly at her knees. She said fortunately her house sits on a raised foundation.

Across town on Chase Street, there was no such luck for Anne Marie Costa.

"I woke up to a flooded back yard, seven months pregnant with a flooded back yard," she said.

Her husband's out of town, so Costa thought she'd be digging a trench with her two-year-old in tow. Then a band of neighbors showed up with shovels.

"We just get together and help each other out," Bryan Pritchett, her neighbor said. "We do it all the time."

"We consider our neighbors the world's best neighbors and this morning validated that 100 percent," Costa said.

From backyard swamp to frontyard flooding, families set up store bought pumps and garden hoses sending water down the street. Despite their efforts and layers of sandbags, water seeped into the garage.

On Highway 37 outside Novato, flood water halted west bound traffic and it swept over the guard rail. East bound drivers were down to just one lane.

An emergency delivery of 20 tons of sand arrived at the Marin Center Thursday morning, families desperate to keep their homes dry lined up shortly after.