Latest weather sends California into storm mode
With heavy rain and flooding in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, Redding and the rest of the North State went into storm mode this week.
Crews went to work clearing ditches and storm drains to keep water from backing up and flooding roads, utility crews watched for downed trees and residents donned rain slickers and galoshes to stay dry.
The National Weather Service predicted 3 to 4 inches of rain in the northern Sacramento Valley and wind speeds at 50 to 60 mph in the Redding area.
Residents were urged to watch out for flooding and standing water in urban areas, as well as rising creeks and streams in more rural areas, the weather service said.
Ryan Bailey, Redding's assistant director of public works, said Wednesday morning that crews worked ahead of the storm to clear storm drains of debris to prevent back-ups that could cause flooding in roadways.
The city has 70 "hot spots" it monitors to watch for flooding. Crews were also prepared with chainsaw to cut up and remove fallen trees, he said.
As of Wednesday, there were no major flooding issues or other incidents reported in the city, he said. The National Weather Service recorded 0.45 inches of rain by Wednesday afternoon at the Redding Regional Airport.
Shasta County Public Works Department crews had snow plows ready to go, said Public Works Director Al Cathey. As of Wednesday afternoon, the snow level was still at about 5,000 feet, though, according to the weather service.
if the snow level drops, we'll have to get out and file snow. But right now the way it's looking is the level is going to be high. So we will have operators free to do more flow and storm related duties.
"We're tooled up," Cathey said, but by Wednesday afternoon there were no reported problems in unincorporated areas of the county. Most residents in the county live below the 5,000 foot level, he said.
"If the snow level drops, we'll have to get out and plow snow. But right now the way it's looking is the snow level is going to be high. So we will have operators free to do more flood and storm related duties," Cathey said.
The only chain restrictions on North State highways were on Highway 89 between McCloud and Burney in the Bartle area and on Highway 36 east of Mineral, according to Caltrans' Quickmaps.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company said it had extra crews on standby for its entire coverage area in Northern and Central California. A California Public Utilities Commission map showed only one small outage, consisting of less than 50 customers in Shasta County, in the Whiskeytown Lake area.
Matt Doyle, general manager of Lake Shasta Caverns National Natural Landmark at the north end of Lake Shasta, said there had been significant amounts of rain Wednesday afternoon that washed out some dirt roads on the exposed bed of the lake.
The lake has been very low because of the past three years of drought. As of Wednesday, the lake was 34% full and about 57% of average for this time of year, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Workers at the caverns were busy lashing down boats and other equipment to keep them from blowing away in the wind or being washed away by the rising lake level, he said.
"Pretty much everybody on the lake, anybody that has infrastructure on the lake, that's all I've been focusing on is getting ready for this storm," Doyle said.
After Thursday, though, the wind and rain was expected to ease up by Friday for much of the North State, the weather service said in an advisory sent out Wednesday.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Redding, Northern California hunkers down under latest storm
