The wind has subsided and the torrential, sideways-blowing rain is gone, but remnants of Tuesday's storm have been keeping utility and cleanup crews busy restoring power and clearing the mess.
At 6 a.m. 12,817 Sacramento Municipal Utility District customers were still without power. Crews worked all night to restore widespread outages that at the storm's blustery height knocked out power to 90,000 customers.
Carmichael resident David Schlaufman was one of those waiting for the lights to come back on at his residence.
"It's been out all night," he said.
Schlaufman, who said he is concerned about frozen food in his refrigerator, is wondering if the outage would last several days or be a short power failure.
Cities and communities where customers were without power included Sacramento, 2100 customers; Carmichael, 2,119 customers; North Highlands, 1,449; Arden Arcade, 1,385; Citrus Heights, 1,315; and Fair Oaks, 1,078.
"We don't have an estimated time on when everyone will be restored," said SMUD spokesman Robert Tokunaga.
Pacific Gas & Electric also had no estimated time for restoration of power in its service area, where 91,000 customers remained without power. Among the counties near Sacramento where PG&E customers were without electricity were Yolo County, 2,325; Nevada, 1,555; Placer, 4,685; and El Dorado, 3,820.
The section of Interstate 5 between downtown and Old Sacramento was clear with no standing water present this morning. An old pipe clogged with debris on Tuesday during the storm, backing up traffic on the part of the downtown freeway where the state spent $40 million for repairs.
On surface streets, city employees who worked in the pouring rain Tuesday to clear downed limbs and felled trees were at it again -- but this time in better weather.
Joe Benassini of the city of Sacramento said crews will be out in force this morning on the second day of major clean-up from the dramatic winds that toppled more than 300 trees or major branches in Sacramento on Tuesday.
Benassini said crews Tuesday cleared streets for travel and today will be clearing major branches and brush from sidewalks and curbs.
He cautioned that budget cuts will make the task slower and asked residents for patience.
"Everybody is a little understaffed," he said. "We are not going to get this thing cleaned up in hours. It's more a matter of days."
The early commute brought numerous crashes around the region, including a big rig that lost its trailer and was blocking a lane eastbound Interstate 80 at Highway 50 in West Sacramento. Tow trucks were on scene at 6:20 a.m.
CHP's Rich Wetzel said drivers still need to be careful this morning.
"It is not raining in most areas, but the roadways are still slick," he said, "and people are not adjusting their speed for the conditions."
As part of the storm clean-up, CHP beat officers will be checking storm drains this morning and reporting problems to Caltrans.
"We know exactly where the problem spots are," Wetzel said. "Often, the officer is the first one to unplug the drain."
The worst is over, but the National Weather Service reports scattered showers today and some strong winds in the morning gusting up to 35 mph.
"Showers may be heavy at times," meteorologist Felix Garcia said, but they will taper off throughout the day and the sun may even make brief appearances.
Better weather is headed in by tomorrow, with temperatures in the mid-70s.
"It's looking good for the rest of the week," Garcia said.
Tuesday's rains set records in Stockton, Modesto and Red Bluff, but fell short in downtown Sacramento.
Nevertheless, downtown Sacramento on Tuesday totaled a whopping 3.04 inches in 24 hours - from 4 a.m. Tuesday until Wednesday morning.
"That's like 450 percent of normal, honestly," Garcia.
Sacramento's all-time record for the day was 3.63 inches in 1962.
Source Sac Bee
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment