Downed lines, trees, and unnecessary calls reported as storm rolls through Stanislaus County

Road closures, flooding, power outages and structural damage all were reported when high winds and steady rain pummeled Stanislaus County over the weekend.

As of late Monday morning, Highway 132 between Wellsford and Geer roads east of Empire remained closed. The stretch was shut down after 41 phone-line poles fell Sunday.

Officer Tom Olsen, California Highway Patrol Modesto are spokesman, said AT&T had replaced all the poles. However, they would still need to be strung together with new wires. He expected the highway to open by 5 p.m. Monday.

Highway 33 was closed between Patterson and Westley due to flooding. That stretch of the highway was fully reopened at 8 a.m. Monday.

As of late Monday morning, there were no weather-related deaths or serious injuries reported.

Starting midafteroon Sunday, power failures began that eventually affected at least a few thousand customers of the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts. By late Monday morning, MID’s interactive, live map of outage reports showed just one customer still affected, near Briggs Avenue. And TID’s outage page showed just 15 customers, in the Patterson area.

911 call center stressed with unnecessary calls

As high winds tore through Stanislaus County over the weekend, officials said their systems were overloaded with 911 calls to the point that it may have threatened public safety.

Reports of toppled trees, fallen utility poles and downed power lines flooded the Stanislaus Regional 911 Center.

There were no serious injuries directly caused by any of these things, but it put major stress on the system, according to Modesto Fire Department Deputy Chief Darin Jesberg. The calls received for fallen trees and limbs were so widespread that “it would take hours to figure out” how many reports there were.

Jesberg said he was at the 911 center to help “triage calls.” Several calls came in for serious responses, such as medical emergencies and structure fires, but were sometimes lost in the vast mix of people calling in to report things like trees falling onto cars.

“In the future, when we have wind events like this, unless it’s a life safety or a fire issue, use nonemergency numbers for things such as trees down,” he said. “People were calling 911 for tree limbs on their street where no one was injured.”

Jesberg said the 911 center was “taxed” Sunday night, largely due to calls about fallen trees but also residents reporting power outages. He said that “unless they’re on some sort of medical device, it’s more of an inconvenience” and did not necessitate a 911 call.

You can report a power outage to the Modesto Irrigation District online, or by calling 209-526-7337 or 888-335-1643 toll-free then say or press 3.

In Modesto, call 209-342-2253 for tree emergencies.

Homeless cleared out ahead of rising river water

Park rangers were able to contact 19 unhoused people residing along the banks of the Tuolumne River, according to the Modesto Police Department.

Sharon Bear, spokeswoman for MPD, said of all of the people contacted agreed to move to higher ground.

A Facebook post by CHP Modesto shows the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s analysis and predictions for the Tuolumne River and Dry Creek. Water levels were expected to increase over 5 feet at its peak by midday Monday. However, the water was not expected to reach flood levels and was expected to recede by Monday evening.