Storm pummels Bay Area but falls short of predictions

The devilish storm that was supposed to pound Northern California with the worst flooding in years turned out to be more of a selective demon.

Two people were killed in car crashes Sunday, bringing the storm-related death toll for the weekend to three.

In the Bay Area, northern regions took the brunt of the storm, with the Napa River reaching flood stage at St. Helena and Napa and water spilling into frontage areas alongside the Petaluma River in downtown Petaluma.

We’ve had a lot of showers and runoff, a lot of localized flooding.

[...] remember, even after the heaviest rains stop, you’re still going to get seepage from the mountains, and mudslides are a real concern in the higher elevations.

The atmospheric river that flowed off the Pacific from the southwest on Sunday didn’t quite live up to its billing as “the storm of the quarter century” — most of the flooding it caused, from Yosemite National Park to the Santa Cruz Mountains and North Bay, was more of the nuisance variety.

A bit farther north, multiple roads flooded around the Petaluma River, leaving some motorists standing on the roofs of their partially submerged cars until the water receded and forcing emergency workers to rescue at least one driver, Tim Smith, 69, by raft.

Just north of where Smith’s car was stranded, a business center often referred to as the “Maker District” had become an island by lunchtime as floodwaters turned the roads surrounding it into a moat.

Some of the businesses, which include distilleries and an auto repair shop, took on some water, and parked cars were inundated up to the windows before the waters began to recede in the evening.

A San Ramon woman died Saturday when she was hit by a falling tree while she was out for a walk, and on Sunday, gusts reaching 60 mph blew down trees that at various times blocked BART, Caltrain, Interstate 280 on the Peninsula and Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

“It looked earlier like it might have been heavier than it turned out to be, but I think we reached the apex and the heaviest rainfall has diminished,” forecaster Benjamin said.

State emergency officials said they were relieved the damage was as limited as it was, but like Benjamin, they warned that the storm danger was not over — particularly in burn areas left from wildland fires earlier this year in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Lucia Mountains near Big Sur, and on the Russian, Napa and Truckee rivers in the coming days.

Local schools and the University of Nevada in Reno will be closed Monday, and state and private workers in the flooded areas were advised to stay home.

“Everything is still being monitored and we’re still going through it,” said Brad Alexander, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Management, as he stood near shallow floodwaters slopping into St. Helena from the Napa River.

Crowds also gathered to ogle the waterway in another flood-prone spot — San Anselmo Creek, which in the past has caused destructive flooding in downtown San Anselmo.