EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM: COMPLETE CHAOSPLUS LACK OF FLOOD PRECAUTIONSPLUS PGE INCOMPETENCE
(My sleep deprivation may have resulted in some times being inaccurate or transposed.)
Around 5 a.m. Christmas Eve we got a land line phone alert for Monterey Bay. On Christmas morning around 2:15 a.m. we gotanother phone alert for a flash flood warning for Ladera, which is a physical impossibility since 99% of Ladera is ona hill with no water source. The only time this could occur would be ifSearsville Dam collapsed. There were other alerts for flooding and evacuationin Menlo Park: many miles away from our location. About the only alerts we did NOT get was fora Tsunami!
I have lived right next to San Francisquito Creek inStanford Weekend Acres for 60 years and know exactly when it will overbank/flood:which is does every few years. This,however, did not deter San Mateo County from approving ridiculous developmentsthat are guaranteed to flood and/or experience bank collapse. Another problem contributing toflooding/erosion/bank collapse is the poor design of the unbuffered stormdrains. Bank collapse and erosion can becontrolled somewhat by vegetation and native trees that absorb excess water andhold the banks in place. However, the countyallows trees to be removed and massive amounts of hardscape to be installed onthe creek banks and even into the channel. Upstream from our property there is a plethora of black drainage pipesfrom developments that have no drainage and/or excessive hardscape, and thesealso contribute to flooding and bank collapse.
The creek level downstream from the confluence of the LosTrancos and San Francisquito Creek is minimal and was during the storm. However, there is a lot of polluting foam
This chaos may be the result of Trump gutting NOA or it maybe a local problem, since the websites with storm data were also inaccuratemuch of the time. I do not know who isresponsible, but the land line and cell phone Alerts need to be geared to thespecific area at risk. Otherwise peoplewill ignore them and possibly come to harm.
The other problem during these storms was the utter failureof PGE to keep the power on in many parts of the county.
