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Rain, Flooding, Mudslides—It's All on the Table Today

On a scale of 1 to 5, meteorologists predict a level 3 El Niño storm.

By Mary Jo Bowling

From the North Bay to the Peninsula, Bay Area residents are hunkering down to weather out what promises to be a roundhouse punch from El Niño. How brutal the hit will be remains to be seen, but already there are reports (and threats of more) of flooding and mudslides.

Yesterday, the North Bay received the brunt of the storm. The Press Democrat reports that heavy rain (4 inches in some areas) "swelled waterways, flooded roads, triggered mudslides, and toppled trees."

Yesterday's flooding caused many schools in Sonoma and Marin Counties to close today.

The threat of more of the same has caused ABC News 7 Meteorologist Mike Nicco to predict a storm that's a 3 on a storm scale from 1–5. Nicco also reports high-wind advisories around the Bay Area, with the strongest gusts between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Because of that threat, many media eyes are on Marin County, and San Anselmo and Corte Madera Creeks in particular, which have had flooding issues in the past. Officials with the Mill Valley Fire Department told ABC News 7 that Corte Madera Creek is at four feet, two feet shy of flood stage.

Down on the Peninsula, news station KCBS is reporting rain delays at San Francisco International Airport of more than two hours.

In San Francisco, according to NBC Bay Area, city officials are bracing for flooding at the problem intersection at 17th and Folsom with a new kind of sand bag—a system of plastic barriers called FloodStop. The modules are filled with water lined up to prevent flood waters from entering buildings.

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