RT: Service resumes on Blue, Gold lines
3:25 p.m.: Sacramento Regional Transit update:
Traffic still stopped on Highway 50
3 p.m.: Highway 50 update:
SMUD: About 4,990 customers still without power
2:50 p.m.: Latest outage update from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District:
Wind cited in big-rig crash that closed I-5 in Woodland
1:55 p.m.: The crash of a semi-truck and trailer that closed a stretch of Interstate 5 in Woodland for about four hours Wednesday night appears to have been related to strong winds, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The 2012 Freight Liner overturned onto its side, resting on a bridge rail north of County Road 22 shortly before 6 p.m.
The driver, 65-year-old Jose C. Castro, and his passenger, Leticia Lopez Castro, 42, both of Moreno Valley, were trapped inside, according to a CHP news release. They were extricated by Woodland Fire Department personnel and were not injured.
Jose Castro told officers that he was driving southbound on I-5 when he felt a strong gust of wind that pushed the truck to the left, where it struck the bridge rail, the news release said.
Report outage reminder from Sacramento police
1:10 p.m.: The Sacramento Police Department reminds residents not to call 911 to report power outages. They advise residents to call 1-888-456-7683 or go to www.smud.org to report outages, unless there are downed wires or emergencies.
Travel stopped on Highway 50
1 p.m.: Snow continues to pile up on Highway 50:
Historic trees fall in Capitol Park
12:45 p.m.: Maintenance crews on Thursday cleared the aftermath of three historic trees at Capitol Park’s Civil War Memorial Grove that were knocked over in Wednesday’s storm.
The trees where brought to the memorial site as saplings. The grove was established in 1897 to commemorate those who fought in the Civil War, said Ken Cooley, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee.
Both a box elder from Missionary Ridge, Tenn., and a tulip tree from Five Forks, Va., come from the site of Southern battlefields and were planted at Capitol Park in 1897.
The third tree, an American elm, was brought in from McKinley’s Tomb in Ohio in 1902 to honor William McKinley, the last president to serve in the Civil War, Cooley said.
Brian Ferguson, deputy director for the Department of General Services, said the trees fell about 6 p.m. Crews were up at dawn to clear the pile of branches and debris left behind. Two park benches were damaged from the fallen trees. The grove was closed to the public Thursday morning.
Downed power lines in Rancho Cordova
11:55 a.m.: Power lines are being repaired near Bradshaw Road.
Tree topples at 13th and H streets
10:45 a.m.: A root-ripped tree partially blocking the intersection of 13th and E streets continued to slow traffic Thursday morning.
Roomates Hannah Bremer and Elizabeth Ruiz said they heard the tree topple over about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“We immediately looked at each other and just immediately out stomach sank because our cars are right here in front of the house,” Ruiz said.
The tree nearly hit a woman driving through the intersection at the time, Bremer said. Her car, which was parked near the base of the tree, faced minor damage to the front passenger side.
Neighbors helped clear branches while others directed traffic through the rain and the wind.
City maintenance workers arrived at the site at 10:40 a.m.
Regional Transit sets up bus bridge
10:25 a.m.: Because of overhead power damage at Eighth and L streets, Sacramento Regional Transit has set up a bus bridge for the Blue Line from 13th Street to Alkali Flat Station and, for the Gold Line, from the 13th Street station to the Sac Valley Station.
Wind, rain and toppled trees during Wednesday storm and through Sacramento history
10:20 a.m.: It’s a recipe for some downed trees: one established city, hundreds of thousands of trees, saturating rains and high winds.
Sacramento officials have received 249 tree-related calls from Wednesday night’s storm. When winds came up many trees went down, falling into utility lines, onto vehicles and across streets.
The perfect storm of wind combined with recent rain. Gusts reached 49 mph at Executive Airport, 56 mph at McClellan Airport, 63 mph at Sacramento International Airport and 47 mph at Mather Field.
The high winds pushed over more than one tree whose roots were mired in soggy soil. So far in the month of January, Sacramento has received a whopping 8.11 inches of rain.
The blustery windstorm wreaked little havoc compared to other damaging weather events: In 1995, at least 150 trees fell on city-owned property and perhaps hundreds more on private property.
In 1952, 400 trees were knocked down by high winds after heavy rains. And in 1938, a storm felled 800 large elms, trees whose roots had been weakened by sidewalk construction that had cut their roots.
Pothole debris snarls Interstate 5 traffic
9:57 a.m.: Potholes on northbound Interstate 5 reduced traffic to two lanes for nearly an hour Thursday morning between Seamas Avenue and Sutterville Road, the California Highway Patrol reports. A block of concrete in the road from a pothole was reported at 8:59 a.m. At 9:35 a.m., a gold Honda Accord hit the debris and lost one of its wheels, the CHP reports. The freeway fully reopened at 9:57 a.m., the CHP reports.
Downed tree crushes midtown home
9:25 a.m.: A midtown home was crushed under a giant tree Wednesday night at 27th Street between L Street and Capitol Avenue.
Homeowner Juliet Musso said her family was at a son’s wrestling match at the time of the crash, which she said happened about 7:30 p.m.
The fallen tree, on the sidewalk in front of her home, damaged her front porch, a bathroom and her son’s bedroom. Broken pipes poured water into the home after the crash, she said.
The family had moved to her “dream house in midtown” six months ago.
“I’m just really grateful that we weren’t home when it happened,” Musso said.
Rainfall and snowpack adding up
9:20 a.m.: The latest rains brought the Northern California precipitation to 209 percent of its average for this time of year, according to the state Department of Water Resources. The Sierra Nevada snowpack is 63 percent above average.
Despite the fresh storm, the region’s rivers appeared to be behaving themselves.
The American River was 12 feet below flood stage in downtown Sacramento, while the Sacramento was 8 feet below, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
In rural south Sacramento County, where homes and farm fields flooded last week, the Cosumnes River was well below flood stage: 5 feet below at Michigan Bar.
Meanwhile, Folsom Lake was continuing to release water into the American River to maintain flood safety. The reservoir was slightly less than half full.
Portion of Highway 50 reopens
9:15 a.m.: Traffic is moving again over Echo Summit:
What to do when the power goes off to the fridge or freezer
9:15 a.m.: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has these tips on what to do about frozen and refrigerated food once the power goes off for an extended period:
▪ Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature.
▪ The refrigerator will keep food cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened.
▪ A full freezer will keep the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed.
Once power is restored, to determine food safety check the temperature when the electricity comes back on. If the freezer thermometer reads 40 degrees Farenheit or below, the food is safe and may be refrozen.
Refrigerated food should be safe as long as the power was out for no more than four hours and the refrigerator door was kept shut. Discard any perishable food (such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, or leftovers) that has been at temperatures above 40 degrees for two hours or more.
Perishable food such as meat, poultry, seafood, milk and eggs that are not kept adequately refrigerated or frozen may cause illness if consumed, even when they are thoroughly cooked.
SMUD update: 9,000 customers without power
The latest outage report from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District:
Large tree down between P and Q streets
8:35 a.m.: A massive fallen tree and power pole blocked cars from entering 23rd street between P and Q streets Thursday morning.
Melanie Dahl, a resident who lives on the street, said she heard the tree fall at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday but did not go outside to see what happened.
“It was too windy,” she said.
She said her home was without power from about 6 to 9 p.m.
Land Park school closed
8:20 a.m.: Crocker/Riverside Elementary School was canceled Thursday because the Land Park campus has a water outage, Principal Daniel McCord said in a recorded 7 a.m. message to families. It was not immediately clear how the water supply was damaged.
Current weather conditions | Current Sacramento traffic conditions
Crews raced against time to stabilize 70-foot-deep sinkhole in Grass Valley
Avalanche control closes portion of Highway 50
8:15 a.m.: Highway 50 over Echo Summit is closed because of avalanche control. Earlier this morning, the Sierra Avalanche Center reported that the avalanche danger is considerable through Friday morning in the greater Lake Tahoe area.
Wind speeds reached 60 mph in areas of Sacramento
7:50 a.m.: Gusts of wind reached speeds of 50 and 60 mph overnight in Sacramento, the National Weather Service reports.
Craig Shoemaker, meteorologist for the weather service, said winds knocked a lot of tree branches down in the area.
There are no flood warnings in effect, except for the Tehama Bridge area along the Sacramento River in Tehama County. Parts of Chico along the Sacramento area have flood warnings, Shoemaker said.
36-hour rain totals from the weather service:
▪ Downtown Sacramento: 1.01 inches
▪ Lincoln: 0.82 inches
▪ Marysville: 0.97 inches
▪ Auburn: 0.92 inches
▪ Grass Valley: 1.72 inches
PG&E: Thousands without power
7:35 a.m.: More than 10,000 Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers are without power Thursday morning in the greater Sacramento area.
Karly Hernandez, PG&E spokeswoman, said the bulk of the outages is in the Rio Vista area, where there are 3,466 customers without power. Hernandez said power should be restored by noon.
In Clarksburg, 896 customers are affected. There are 1,396 customers are without power in Davis.
Hernandez said customers in these areas should expect power to be restored by 9 or 10 a.m.
“We have had crews working overnight in the area and throughout the state,” Hernandez said.
SMUD: 200 power lines down overnight
7:17 a.m.: Bob Burns, spokesman for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, said there are 220 outages still, and about 9,100 customers are currently affected by outages throughout the county.
“Crews have been making some headway through the night, when there were still 70,000 (customers affected,)” Burns said.
Almost 200 power lines were down overnight, Burns said.
“Some of these people will be out (of power) for a while, I’m hesitant to say when. This is going to go well into the morning and possibly longer,” Burns said.
Trees toppled, power lines down as Sacramento region is pummeled by gusts
7 a.m.: Crews will be out in force restoring electricity and clearing large trees from roadways Thursday after a gusty storm lashed the Sacramento region.
Gusty winds take down trees and power lines, I-5 re-opens after crash
A.M. weather report
The National Weather Service is calling for light showers on Thursday before another hopefully less destructive storm moves into the north state. The more moderate weather provides better conditions to clean up the mess left by Wednesday’s wind-blown rainstorm.
Sacramento Municipal Utility District and Pacific Gas & Electric crews worked through the night, restoring power to customers. Power lines were blown down near Folsom Boulevard and Bradshaw Road and other locations.
A great number of trees were still down on roadways, including at Eastern Avenue and Sierra Madre Drive. Power lines were also down at the location.
Trees fell when buffeted by very high winds. One of the strongest gusts occurred at 7:13 p.m. Thursday when a mighty blast registered 63 mph at Sacramento International Airport.
The next storm arrives Friday, but it won’t pack the punch of Wednesday wind and rain event. The Friday storm, however, will be blustery and could deliver another half inch of rain to Sacramento.
Then, beginning Saturday night, a wetter rainstorm heads to the north state. The NWS predicts that Sunday will be much like the entire month of January: windy and wet.
The advanced forecast for the Sacramento region from the weather service:
Thursday: Showers likely, with thunderstorms also possible after 10 a.m. Cloudy, with a high near 54. South wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Thursday night: A chance of showers before 10 p.m., then rain after 10 p.m. Low around 47. South southeast wind 7 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Friday: Rain before 10 a.m., then showers after 10 a.m. High near 52. Breezy, with a south wind 15 to 24 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100 percent. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Friday night: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 45. South wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70 percent. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Saturday: A chance of showers before 4pm, then rain after 4 p.m. High near 53. South wind around 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent.
Saturday night: Rain. Low around 47. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 90 percent.
Sunday: Showers. High near 52. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 80 percent.
Sunday night: Showers likely. Cloudy, with a low around 42.
Monday: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 51.
Monday night: A chance of showers. Cloudy, with a low around 39.
Tuesday: A chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 53.
Tuesday night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 53.
Bill Lindelof: 916-321-1079, @Lindelofnews
This story was originally published January 19, 2017 7:06 AM.