The Press Democrat
GRATON, Calif. — Driving on Graton Road on Thursday afternoon, an emergency scanner in Occidental Fire Chief Ron Lunardi’s truck crackled with reports of a possible house fire in Monte Rio, a water rescue in Bloomfield, a medical call outside of Graton and trees into power lines near Occidental.
Thursday’s storm did what winter storms do — it brought inches of rain and wind and kept firefighters throughout the region hustling to calls.
“Trees, power lines, broken poles,” Lunardi said, listing the main problems handled that day by Occidental firefighters.
“It’s one thing after another after another,” Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman said. “What saved us is we haven’t gotten a whole lot of wind. But we sure have a whole lot of water.”
Before dawn, when the storm was really ramping up, Occidental firefighters were called to Dupont Road, where they found two redwoods had fallen into numerous power, phone and cable lines, pulling down four poles along the west county lane.
The call was one of about 15 for Occidental for the day, Lunardi said, as he later pointed out the numerous broken lines, sheered-off poles and toppled redwood trees, which had crashed onto a resident’s decorative iron fence.
In the hilly west county, standing water was less of an issue as in other areas. Water runoff from the pounding rain turned Dutch Bill Creek and other small waterways into roaring, white-water runs. Hillsides began sprouting mini waterfalls, and the Russian River swelled with muddy brown water.
On the east side of the county, Schell-Vista Fire Chief Ray Mulas was closing Highway 121 at Napa Road on Thursday morning because of water on the major route when he was faced with numerous drivers who didn’t want to heed the closure.
“It’s frustrating,” Mulas said, grumbling about the determination of drivers to put themselves in harm’s way.
“Road’s closed,” he called out to a driver, who argued with the chief about being diverted to Napa Road.
Water on the road made it too dangerous to pass, the chief said.
“From where I am, (getting to) Santa Rosa is going to be a two-hour trip for a 45-minute drive,” Mulas said. His advice for the day: “Stay home.”
CHP Officer Kerri Post was stationed Thursday afternoon in a patrol car at Graton Road, just west of downtown Graton, where Atascadero Creek had turned a large section of the road into a lake. Drivers still were ignoring the “flooded” signs that sat in the middle of the road and venturing through.
But Post was on the other side and was not welcoming. “I put on my lights and they’d turn around,” she said.
Flooding was a major issue in Healdsburg because of a too-full Foss Creek, which flows through town. Firefighters worked from the edges, dealing with flooding issues and closing streets.
For awhile firefighters also were included in the day’s flood zone as standing water blocked access to the fire station. Staff and crews were so busy with calls they didn’t need to be in the station anyway, said Kim Thompson, the day’s fire battalion chief for Healdsburg, Cloverdale and Geyserville.
“It was amazing. I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never seen Foss Creek come up that fast,” Thompson said.
As predicted, the storm’s damage seemed first to occur along Sonoma County’s north coast where Timber Cove’s volunteer firefighters started getting calls at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday.
They answered several reports of downed trees along the Highway 1 corridor. At times they had to stop en route to and from calls to cut up downed trees blocking their path, according to fire reports. A few times on the way home they found more trees had fallen anew across their path and they had to stop and cut them up to get back.
Fire crews in the Russian River area reported no serious issues as of Thursday afternoon but echoed other emergency officials that the day was one for downed trees, fallen power lines and overflowing creeks.
Calls for Monte Rio firefighters included a 2 a.m. call to help free a woman trapped in her home by a large amount of fallen limbs.
Later, Chief Baxman was responding to a coast ranch to help move cattle from flooded pasture, when a tree fell across Highway 116 near Duncans Mills and needed attention.
“None of this is big stuff. This is a standard winter storm with downed trees and people with problems,” Baxman said. “It’s just so long since we’ve had a real winter storm.”
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