Heavy Rains Monday Cause Flooded Roadways, Traffic Backups, Power Outages
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— It may not be as windy as last week, but there's plenty more rain in Monday's forecast and more people on the roads are causing several traffic backups for commuters.
Steady and heavy at times rain caused flooding in San Francisco on Interstate 280 near Cesar Chavez Street.
In the East Bay a big rig jackknifed after a crash, creating problems at Sunol Blvd. and Interstate 680 near Pleasanton.
Despite early Monday morning's rains Golden Gate Weather Service's Jan Null said this week's weather system won't have much of a significant impact. Several cities along with Caltrans and California Highway Patrol are typically concerned with water logged soil that could lead to mudslides and flooding.
Coffee and bagels shops suffered a bit of an economic impact from last Thursday's storm, but were glad to see the return of commuters and customers.
Tanya, who works at the Noah's Bagels on Lakeshore Avenue in Oakland, was happy to see her store's area less flooded.
"I mean water was so high. It was really flooded like, right in here. The trash cans all fell over and stuff. It was flooded so bad on this road last week. It looks okay today," she said.
Although the storm drains seemed to be flowing better on Monday, some could still be seen partially covered by leaves. Several businesses left their sandbags in place to be safe rather than sorry.
PG&E crews were out in force as well working on restoring power to more than 5,000 Bay Area customers experiencing outages. Customers in Petaluma, Tomales and Dillon Beach reported scattered outages around 3 a.m. affecting about 1,500 homes. Around 4 a.m. power went out for about 3,600 customers in the Vallejo and American Canyon. Crews were looking for the source of the outage and did not give an estimated time for full restoration.