It's very scary here in Northern California

[icnmgrjill]

Well, I'm writing this hunkered down in my house... having already been about and about scanning the neighborhood for flooding and damage. It's intense and bad. The creek below our house flooded overnight.... but is back in its banks now. A woman just two miles away was trapped in her house last night for an hour after a mudslide swept through it and destroyed it. 3 dogs and 1 cat now missing. Two other houses damaged.

I talked with my brother in law, Brian, up at the ranch in Healdsburg. He went out early and found lots of problems. Roads flooded throughout the wine country. A mudslide just north of their house that brought trees down to the roadside. The Russian River is the highest that he's seen in 10 years and it hasn't peaked yet. He thinks it could get much worse. He also reported very high winds... which we're having too... which could bring more trees down.

Highway 101, the main highway to San Francisco, is apparently closed due to flooding. They also expect the Eel River, about 50 miles to the North of us, to flood.

Lots of sirens going around... as crazy drivers who should have stayed home are trying to drive through flooded areas. I mean, sheesh! Who in their right mind would drive this way.

We do still have power... which amazes me. It wouldn't surprise me if we lost it today. Also expecting thunderstorms this afternoon. I swear we just had a small tornado go above the house as you could see the rain swirling around in a rotation. :::::::sigh::::::::

Since my childhood, I've had a tremendous fear of brown rushing water.... so you won't see me going to watch the big rivers. Just gives me a major case of the creeps!

Wish us luck on this dangerous New Years Eve. I've only got one more trip to make into town and then I'm going to hunker down by the fire and just stay out of it all! Whewwweeeee!!!

::::anxiously:::::

Jill O.

[sunshine_77us]

Jill
I've been watching that on the news and I know it's terrible. I would be scared. It's scary that people would take the chance and drive through those flood waters. We have lost a few in WV from doing that. You're in my prayers.

[Sarojini]

I too have been following it via the news and have been wondering how you are doing... I am so glad you're okay so far but am still concerned for you. Stay safe!!!!!!!! :grouphug:

[icjen]

:grouphug: :kissing: :pray:
I pray for you and everyone in the area.

[karen10300]

I too have been watching this on the news and it is so scary. I pray for everyone going through this. Please take care and be safe Jill.

[coco1234]

Im praying for you!!!! Stay safe! :pray:

[ICLori]

Oh, how awful! I pray you will be safe! What is with the weather lately, it's just crazy everywhere, isn't it?

Blessings,
Lori

[kadi]

I'm much farther south down here in the East Bay. It's stormy here (though not as bad as where you are), but still had a very scary drive home from a friend's last night. Won't be going out this weekend either! Stay safe & dry!

[curlycue]

Hey Kadi,
I forgot you lived out in SF I was just out there on Tuesday, I was going to stay a couple of days but everyone that went with me go sick so we decided to come home sooner. Stay safe and dry and have a nice New Years.

[ICNDonna]

The flooding reaches clear into Oregon. Thankfully we're on fairly high ground. We're pretty well just hunkering down to ride it out. So far there haven't been any widespread power outages and I hope we don't get there. Being without heat and water is no fun!

We did make it out for groceries this morning so we should be okay just hanging out at home. Our little great granddaughter is visiting with our daughter and was supposed to be picked up yesterday, but the interstate going into California has been closed --- not sure when her father will be able to get here for her.

I want summer and I want it now!

Donna

[callie0767]

be safe jill

[Dixiefireball]

I've also been watching this awful storm on the T.V. My heart goes out to you all. Know you all are in my heart and prayers as you all ride out the nightmare of a storm.
May God be with you all each and everyone.
Rhonda :grouphug:

[Katie14]

Jill, stay inside and safe! I have family in your area. My sister said helicopters are flying around like a war zone. Where I am, a couple hours away, is not as bad though it rained REALLY hard all morning and there is flooding in a lot of areas though fortunately not around my immediate area. The sun came out this afternoon. What I'm most worried about is my mom and her husband. They are driving to Tahoe today!! I can't believe they are attempting it. I'm waiting to get a phone call they made it up there so feeling anxious too. Take care all.

[icnmgrjill]

3:30pm update

The skies are calmer now that it's afternoon... but we've also discovered 3 landslides on the hill (not too close but still within a 10 minute walk up hill) above our home which shows that the hills are definitely unstable.

Spring Lake, our flood control project, is just inches from using the emergency spillway which means that it's only about 8 feet from the top of the dam. It's only gone over the emergency spillway once in 40 years. That shows just how bad this is.

If we get another major storm, as they are predicting, tomorrow... it's going to be intense! Eerrr.... uggghhhh.... sighhhhhhh!!!!!

Jill

[ICNJess]

Good luck and stay safe!!!!

[dancemomof2]

Stay safe Jill, this is no way to bring in the new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!Sending hugs and prayers to all involved.

[Debgail]

Glad it is a bit better now Jill....I hear ya about the weather. I live in Reno and work up in incline Villiage/ Lake Tahoe. I got caught in a blizzard on the way down the mountain last night and today the streets and all hyws are either closed of backed up. Our back yard has had a mudslide into the wash behind our house. It is fine now and our rain is turning to snow. My husbands work totally flooded at the Truckee river and raw sewage was all over...Yuck!!! They were evacuated , so I get hubby home Yippee!

To everyone: Stay safe , stay inside and cuddle on the couch with the heating pad :)
Hope everything at this hour is better Jill ...in your neck of the woods!!!

Take care and Hugs to all,
Debbie

[cass2376]

Hello all,
Jill, I hope you and your family stay safe!! I am praying for you and everyone in general in the storm to be safe! We live about an hour away and I know what you mean by being scared. It was sooooooo windy and raining the hardest I have seen in a while last night and into the morning. We too got the "break" for a while but are preparing for the next storm too. Our niebrohood(sp?) has a lot of flooding by the drains because of the leaves that are abundant in our yards and streets. I have a courtyard area in our front yard that is completly flooded and the drain can not do its job cause of the drains in the street being flooded. Yikes!! We are going to get sandbags for our front door and back because we don't have any steps to our doors, we are level to the flooded areas. If our courtyard floods any worse, it won't take much for it to get in our home. This is so weird. We have never had this problem before, and we have had a couple of prety bad storms. I guess this is the worst yet!! Anyway, I will pray for you Jill cause you are worse off than me. Pray for us too!
Take care and I hope you all have a SAFE NEW YEARS EVE!! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!! God Bless you all, Cassandra :angel:

[sandramac]

Stay safe JILL!PREYING FOR YOU!Huggs Sandra

[Silverfern]

Hugs to you Jill and all of you guys caught in this horrible weather. I hope it passes quickly and you're all warm and safe inside your homes. Take care!

:grouphug:

[SharonA]

I hope this weird weather goes away. I used to live in the Central Valley of CA and know that Winter is the wet season, but gosh...this amount of rain in northern CA is very unusual.

Jill...what are they saying about the grape vines? What will all this water do to the wine industry in Napa, etc. ? Yeah, I do drink a bit of red wine and love the Napa area wines.

Please everyone affected by this weather...stay safe inside your homes and for goodness sakes don't try to drive through a flooded area on the roads. You can't tell how deep the water is until you are in the middle of it. That could be too late. We get alot of rain here in the Memphis area and there are always people who think they can cross the flooded area on roads and then wonder why their cars fill up with water and they can't move. Then someone has to come and rescue them. If only they would use common sense...but I digress. This isn't about Memphis, it's about Northern CA.

Everyone...I am praying that this weather calms down and all of you stay safe. :pray:

[Rosalie]

Since reading this post I've logged on to your weather sites and have seen the problems you have. Please stay safe. Many of the tragedies occur when people try to get through flood waters.
You are smart to batten down the hatches and stay put.

The odd weather is happening over here as well. While you face a wet and windy new year, we sweltered in our hottest new years eve ever. The temperature topped 109 yesterday and was still at 106 at 8.00pm. When we were returning home from our new years festivities at 2.00am it was still 96!

[TexasHoney]

I hope the weather improves for you guys. :pray: :pray: :pray:

P.S. - Send some of that rain over here to Texas.

Happy New Year
TexasHoney

[charmedx3]

I had to go to work yesterday wish i could stay home but not possible. tried main hwy 101 to head south-closed. I came home got my husbands durango picked up co workers and head in. we were diverted to back roads to hwy 37 then off to another backroad then onto hwy 101! I was glad I wasn't alone! It was so windy! standing water!
My parents street in santa rosa has never flooded before yesterday my mom said the street was covered! my brother with the armory was helping evacuate people from gurneville !
Rain has returned hope it stops soon! at least the kids are home from school a few more days!

[SusieQ045]

i hope the bad wheather passes and i hope that you get to enjoy the New Year!! good luck!!!

[mary124]

This crazy weather! Flooding out West, and Fire in Texas and Okla. :grouphug:

[asilva]

That's terrible about the weather there. Texas, Eastern NM, and Oklahoma are burning up with fires all around. Wish some of your rain would come our way!

[Katrina]

That is what I said to my husband...crazy weather. :grouphug::pray:

[Kara29]

Jill,

I just saw the news and it showed what you were descrbing. Stay safe and I hope the cleanup is quick and life gets back to normal soon! You are all in my prayers!

Love,

Kara :grouphug:

[creatingkarma]

Please stay safe, everyone!

[hoping4acure]

Jill,

This is horrific. I pray for each and every one of you. This world has gone crazy! What about that horrible fire out in Texas and OK?

:pray: :pray: :pray:

[Sarojini]

Jill -- how are things now? Have they improved at all or did the second swath of rain/storms make it worse?? We all hope you're safe and sound. :grouphug:

[poetgirl]

Good luck and please be safe! The situation sounds very frightening. :pray:

[icnmgrjill]

Ahhh!!! It's Tuesday and the Russian River is going down..... all of the flood waters are now going down dramatically though, yes, we did get clobbered by more rain this weekend! I've counted four small to medium landslides above our home... but not close, so don't worry. If they go, they wouldn't hit our house.

However, we have two big things going on. Our major freeway, Highway 101, has now washed out half of the southbound lanes south of Cotati. I feel sorry for anyone who had to commute to San Francisco this morning! Arrrghhh! According to the radio, it was taking 45 minutes to travel 3 miles past the slide zone.

The real irony, though, is that the ONLY bridge that can take people to the Indian Casino in Healdsburg is now sagging on one end and may have been closed this AM. Our CalTrans is historically slow in repairing bridges but I just bet that the Gaming community will fork up millions to keep their customers coming. Don't get me started on gambling and the devastation it causes to so many low income people! That's another column all together.

We all had a major case of "cabin fever" over the weekend which I translated into putting all of the holiday decorations away. Walking on our lawn was like walking on a sponge! Clear water came up and around my shoes! Alas, I even came to work yesterday for a few hours just to "Get Out" and managed to finish the Dr. Theo lecture transcript from last November. It's our ICN New Years Gift to you all and can be found at: http://www.ic-network.com/guestlectures/

The worst is passed... I hope.... but this would not be a good time for an earthquake!

Jill :)

[Katrina]

:grouphug: