Santa Rosa seeing localized flooding after steady rainfall
In Santa Rosa, a steady rain fell all day Wednesday leading to some localized flooding and road closure plus flood watches and flood advisories.
While severe flooding isn't expected with this storm, there are still plenty of dangers to drivers.
"The curbs and gutters are able to handle the water, but they don't have anywhere for it to go to because they're trying to flow into the creeks, but when the creeks are up, there's nowhere really for that water to flow into, so there's a lot of backups as a result of it," said Paul Lowenthal with the Santa Rosa Fire Department.
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He said their department is working closely with Public Works to clear debris from creeks and streams, as well as storm drains to keep water moving. When it doesn't, the city sees the type of minor flooding that happened over on West College Avenue early Wednesday afternoon.
Over on Industrial Avenue, many drivers simply ignored the "Road Closed" signs and drove through the flooded street. Lowenthal said that type of behavior is very dangerous during these types of storms.
"We see time and time again people not heeding those warnings and trying to drive through and end up either getting stranded or worst-case scenario finding themselves actually needing to be physically rescued because they're in moving water. That draws a significant response to an incident that was 100% avoidable," said Lowenthal.
Across town at Cartunes in Santa Rosa, it was a different kind of emergency — a car came crashing through their store Tuesday afternoon just before it started raining.
"My heart was pounding, I was shaking," said Nicole Meza.
She's the daughter of the owner and was working behind the counter at the time.
"I think I heard something a moment before and then I saw it come in and I didn't realize for a moment what had happened," she said.
Nicole and the customer weren't seriously injured. Neither was the driver, who police said simply lost control of his vehicle. It did create a problem trying to close up the gaping hole before the rain, because water and electronics don't mix well.
"That's a huge fear because they're all relayed together. Who knows what would happen but that would be a huge problem for us to fix," said Meza.
Just two weeks ago, Santa Rosa was under a Red Flag Warning due to fire danger. Thanks to this storm, the city of Santa Rosa was able to declare an official end to fire season on Monday.