Bay Area boat owners on alert ahead of storm

SAUSALITO, Calif. (KGO) -- The U.S. Coast Guard has put boat owners on alert to take precautions ahead of the approaching storm.

Yacht broker John Baier has been securing lines to keep his inventory of luxury vessels from leaving the dock and drifting away. He said, "We are very worried when we have weather like this coming in."

In Sausalito, boats which can be moved are out of the water.

Baier says he's done all he can do. He told ABC7 News, "We've removed a lot of the canvas from the boats, covers, tops, anything that could be blown away in a big gust of wind. Over 40 knots is what we're expecting."

Marin County is getting set to activate its emergency operations center, where satellite images of the approaching storm take center stage. Reverse 911 calls about possible localized flooding are ready to go out to homeowners if needed.

A big digital sign is alerting Mill Valley residents to be ready for the storm.

Sandbags are in place at The Cove Shopping Center in Tiburon where flooding happened during last week's storm after a water pump failed.

Last week parts of Highway 101 near Marin City were completely submerged under water.

Caltrans says it has cleaned storm drains to prevent a repeat performance, but the real test comes when the next storm arrives.