Sonoma County locals raise questions about how officials responded to historic storm
Sonoma County is still dealing with the impact of last week's historic rainfall, with some local residents raising concerns about whether officials did enough to warn people.
For some, the storm had deadly consequences. A man was found in a vehicle submerged in flood water Saturday morning near Mays Canyon Road and state Highway 116, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office confirmed.
Earlier that morning in Santa Rosa, a man was found dead in Piner Creek just south of Guerneville Road, the police department said. His death is being investigated and has not yet been linked to the storm.
With the Russian River rising higher and faster than initially projected, some neighbors felt a little caught off guard.
"The water came up to about right here," said Teresa Burns of Guerneville, pointing at a spot on the side of her ruined home.
Burns was still sorting through might be salvageable from her camper that was consumed by the nearby creek as the Russian River rose on Friday.
"Yeah it was at 34 feet or 35 feet," Burns said "That sealed our fate."
"Yeah, this is the truck," explained Trava Faust, another area resident. "This is Mike's truck. And then that's my poor little Jaguar over there. It was totally submerged."
For Faust, the water came surging into her street and basement so fast there was nothing they could do. She said they didn't get any warning that the water would get this high at this location.
"We have a weather app that just kind of tells us how much rain is coming down," Faust said, "But it was just way too late, by the time. No. Not enough, no."
"In the past, we've had Nixle alerts and stuff like that for previous floods," Burns said. "And through the fires. We were getting alerts. But this time we didn't."
"This water came in, and it was a flow of water," Michael Gomez said of the quick rising water levels.
Gomez said he was able to save his camper at the last minute, but given the impact of the water, he too was left wondering.
"Well, you know it's funny, because we were asking ourselves the same question," he said. "We didn't get any alerts. We didn't get anything."
Sonoma County Communications Manager Paul Gullixson insisted that officials followed their storm response plan by the book.
"I want to emphasize that while an alert didn't go out, there was plenty of communication," said Gullixson. "We spent the last eight days working with our community partners -- cities, fire districts, National Weather Service, including our media partners -- getting word out about the significance of this atmospheric river that was approaching."
That response included notifications based on the specific forecast of the river. In this case, the Russian River reached 34.68 feet, just short of moderate flood stage at 35 feet.
"When the river reaches a moderate or certainly a major flood level, which did not happen in this case, there would be evacuations ordered and there would be evacuation centers opened. And at that time, Nixel alerts most likely would be going out alerting people," Gullixson explained. "The Russian River reached minor flood stage. But I don't want to diminish the fact that even at minor flood, there are many people who were impacted. We recognize that. Our thoughts are with them. And many people know that that's the risk of being in the low lying areas near the Russian River."
Many other locals expressed similar thoughts, that the technically minor flood was just that. Still, the county said it will reassess what was learned from the rainstorm.
That said, we learn from every event. We're going to take stock of what happened in this case and we'll evaluate that. And we're always looking for ways to do it better," Gullixson added.
