South Bay slammed by storm, Los Gatos Creek takes over

Katie Marzullo Image
ByKatie Marzullo KGO logo
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
South Bay slammed by storm, Los Gatos Creek takes over
Monday's storm slammed into the South Bay creating traffic problems, road closures and flooding.

LOS GATOS, Calif. (KGO) -- Monday's storm slammed into the South Bay and all that rain lead to flooding everywhere from freeways to mobile home parks.

RELATED: Mudslides force several roads to close in Marin County

Los Gatos Creek has completely overtaken the Los Gatos Trail and that's not the only thing that happened along the street.

"I told my son, 'I don't want you in your room can you please come out,'" said Josh Gispan.

Gispan has been watching a tree outside his son's window for weeks and with all the rain he finally decided his son's room was too much at risk.

"As soon as I opened his window to look outside, the tree came crashing toward us," he said.

They're okay, but not out of harm's way. They live along the flooded Los Gatos Creek Trail.

In Campbell, on Union Avenue near The Pruneyard, a massive tree came crashing down.

Branches damaged the roof of an apartment building. Scott Anderson lives across the street. "It looks like the back of the park is under about 8 inches of water," said San Jose Fire Department Captain Mitch Matlow. "We're attempting to pump that water out of the park."

The pumping continued into the night right out in front of Kim de la Paz' front door. She did not have to evacuate but she's preparing for the worst.

"We heard it could still have a chance," she said. "The creek could overflow this way so we're on alert until Thursday so I thought we'd get a few things together in case."

Drivers faced flooding on Highway 280 near Winchester Boulevard in San Jose. Several lanes were completely under water.

RELATED: Firefighters rescue two from rising Coyote Creek in San Jose

It slowed traffic to a crawl on what should have been a light holiday commute. Several surface roads were submerged as well.

As bad as things in Los Gatos look, a city worker told ABC7 News, conditions aren't causing evacuations or damage so far.

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