By Bob Walsh
It is about 1030 a.m. on 01-01-23 as I pound this out. We had a very respectable storm yesterday. A LOT of wind and a LOT of rain across NorCal. Major road flooding in Modesto, Stockton and Sacramento. A friend of mine who had to drive for work yesterday saw a whole series of one-car wrecks on I-5 in Stockton when cars going way too fast for conditions hit a significant amount of standing water on the road and hydroplaned. They all ended up nosing into the K-rail at good sped. It looked like none hit each other, but that can be hard to tell if you are trying to drive and not being a spectator. There was also supposed to be a levee breach or topover in the Wilton area, resulting in some people having to do an emergency New Years Eve evacuation. That must have been fun.
There were a lot of power outages everywhere do to the wind. The local bingo hall (next to the race track) lost power and there was a near-riot by the Saturday Night Bingo crowd.
There was only modest fireworks activity due to the wind and rain but around midnight it sounded like D-Day on Omaha Beach. A LOT of gunfire. Had to trank a couple of the dogs though. They REALLY hate loud noises. I will have to go up on my roof today and check for holes. The weather today is supposed to be very nice actually. Then another weeks worth of substantial rain. I am not knocking it, we need the reservoir refills, but.......
At any rate nobody I know died, nobody I know got arrested, nobody I know got hurt. An auspicious start to the year all things considered.
CalTrans has closed Hwy 99 between Lodi and Sacramento for an indefinite period due to extreme flooding and possible road damage. That will be fun tomorrow and a LOT of fun for the Tuesday commute if it is still shut down then. (Monday is a holiday for a lot of people.)
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