Rain storms take toll on Petaluma

The once brown hills surrounding Petaluma have turned green again this winter, but it came at a cost. Heavy rainstorms with accompanying high winds have been hitting Northern California hard since the year has started.

Highways have been closed due to flooding, and the Oroville Dam faced a crisis causing the town of Oroville to evacuate as precaution.

Petaluma also has been slammed by the wet weather after a seemingly endless drought. While not as bad as other parts of the state, the rain storms have been impacting the lives of Petaluma residents, especially those who have to work outside.

Jim Whitt, a groundskeeper for Petaluma City Schools, has been kept busy by the storms.

“We do a lot more to preparing for the rain,” he said. “We take care of the drains, clear the drains, so people can drive through.”

The most difficult part is how it delays Whitt from his regular duties. “It delays the regular routine,” he said. “This means taller grass and more weeds to deal with later.”

Another person affected by the rain storms is Jerry Kalfos who works at Jerry’s Tree Service. In addition to storm work, Jerry’s Tree Service evaluates trees, prunes them, checks their longevity and diagnoses the health of the trees.

“The rain has made the job insane,” Kalfos said.

He’s had to clear 30 trees that have fallen in the last month alone.

“A 120-foot tree fell and knocked the power lines out over on Monty Vista Lane,” he said. “We’ve had the drought for so many years. Now we have heavy winds and rains. The trees can’t support themselves.”

Kalfos mentioned that he hasn’t seen rains this bad since the flooding in 1982, 1986 and 1991. Whitt has also never seen rain storms this bad either.

“I haven’t seen rain this bad since I worked at the school,” he said. “Everyone got used to the drought. It’s creating havoc.”

Dan St. John, the city’s director of public works and utilities, is confident that the rains are nothing that the city can’t handle.

“This is more gentle rains. We get two inches of rain but it’s stretched over 24 hours. Our systems are perfectly adequate to handle them,” St. John said.

However, he does point out that some of the older streets that are not designed to drain well are susceptible to flooding. He also warns of local ponding and pot holes.

“We get more pot holes when the streets are wet,” he said.

St. John said the city is in “pretty good shape” to avoid major flooding since the completion of a major flood control project, hundreds of feet of floodwalls along the Petaluma River and channel improvements. The work was mostly completed in 2006 with the last part finishing up in 2015.

This year saw the wettest January in Sonoma County in two decades. More than nine inches of rain fell in February. Several roads and highways were closed in and around Petaluma, but it seems the city avoided the heavy flooding of other communities, such as those along the Russian River.

The current forecast is for a mostly sunny March.