Storms soak the peninsula, down trees, knock out power
Updated: Jul 16
Editor’s note — This article won fifth place for breaking news in the California News Publishers Association’s 2023 California Journalism Awards.
The windy and wet bomb cyclone storm that walloped the Bay Area last week dumped nearly 3 inches of rain on the Tiburon Peninsula, felling trees all over town and sending first responders scrambling to close streets and clear downed wires.
Nearly 2,300 Tiburon customers lost power during periods between 6 a.m. March 21 and 10 p.m. March 22, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. reported.
Residents got a storm preview on March 19, when some 0.88 inches of rain was recorded at Marin County’s Pamela Court weather gauge off Tiburon Boulevard. The region was then pummeled on March 21, with Tiburon’s 24-hour rain total, beginning at 7 a.m., at another 1.84 inches. Winds also blasted the area, with the National Weather Service’s Sugarloaf Drive station recording gusts of 48 mph the afternoon of March 21, according to service meteorologist Alexis Clouser.
It was the state’s 12th atmospheric-river storm since Christmas, which according to the U.S. Drought Monitor helped lift 45% of California, including all of Marin County, out of drought conditions as of March 14 — 49% by early March 21, before the storms hit. The Pamela Court gauge has recorded 38.41 inches of rain from the Oct. 1 start of the water season through March 27, compared with 27.58 inches the year prior.
But the storms have also led to fatalities — five people were killed in the Bay Area in storm incidents last week — as well as flooding, tornadoes, mudslides and other destruction. PG&E reported March 21 was its worst single day for Bay Area outages since 1995, with 210,000 customers losing power at some point.
Another storm was expected to hit early this week, after The Ark’s press deadline.
Locally, Tiburon Fire Protection District spokesperson Nicole Chaput said crews responded to 20 weather-related emergency calls during last week’s storm.
Among the March 21 incidents, a large tree fell into power lines on Paradise Drive between Trestle Glen Boulevard and Seafirth Road. One lane of traffic was blocked while repairs were made.
By the next morning, all of Paradise Drive was blanketed with a thin layer of bark, twigs and leaves where trees and branches had fallen. The trunks and branches had been cut up and carted away so they would not be a driving hazard.
The Tiburon Police Department posted an alert on online neighborhood forum Nextdoor.com asking people to avoid the area and urging people to secure patio furniture and boats, as winds continued to gust.
Earth from multiple minor landslides on the uphill sides of Paradise Drive between Trestle Glen Boulevard and Mar East Street from March 21 and previous storms had been cleared and dumped in high piles on a long vehicle pullout area south of Norman Way. Barriers had been placed at the base of the landslides.
Ridge Road resident Scott Woods was at Woodlands Market on March 21 when he said a clerk called his attention to sparks flying through the air in the Mar West area, where a tree had fallen and taken down a power line. Woods headed home and found a tree also had fallen on his street, a eucalyptus that was lying across Ridge Road. The tree destroyed the front end of resident Geoff Knight’s prized silver 1996 Ford F-150, which he’s maintained and gradually upgraded over the years.
Crews came later in the evening to cut up the tree and open the road.
Access in and out of upper Old Tiburon and the Hill Haven neighborhood also was affected by a cypress tree reportedly 4 feet in diameter that fell across Centro East Street, near the intersection with Diviso. Traffic was reduced to one lane as crews cut up the tree.
In addition, fallen trees were reported on Taylor Road, Spring Lane and Mar West Street. A few took down power lines and required a PG&E. response.
On Red Hill Circle, someone reported the wind had tipped over a portable toilet that was blowing down the street. Police responded and tied the toilet to a nearby fence.
In Strawberry and western Tiburon, covered by Southern Marin Fire Protection District, crews responded to three incidents during the storm, all involving trees and wires down, according to Deputy Chief Tom Welch. That included a downed tree on Via Capistrano that landed on an occupied car in the driveway of a home, breaking the windshield. The driver’s hand was bleeding, but she declined medical help, according to the police logs.
The other trees came down on Chapel Drive in Strawberry and on Barn Road in Tiburon. No landslides were reported, he said.
Police spokesperson Laurie Nilsen said the storm response was a joint effort among the fire agencies, police, Public Works and private tree-removal services.
She said Tiburon officers assigned to the night shift were asked to come in early, and those working the day shift stayed late to pitch in. She noted first-responder crews have started a text group and now are able to share photos and information with each other quickly and to post to social media to keep the public up to date.
Overall, she said, the area weathered the storm fairly well.
“We saw more trees down than we’ve seen in past storms, mainly due to the saturated ground and heavy winds, but compared to other places, we were very lucky,” she said. “The property damage could have been worse, and we didn’t have any killed or seriously injured.”
Reach Tiburon reporter Deirdre McCrohan at 415-944-4634.