I have mostly lived in the SF Bay greater Area since 1980 even though I also lived in Hawaii in late 1989 to 1990 also and lived in Mt. Shasta from 1980 to 1985 and from 1990 to 1992 with my family. So, the rest of the time I have mostly lived in the Greater San Francisco area from 1980 until now.
This year looks to be a year where there will be moderate to severe flooding. We have had years where houses are washed off of cliffs and into the ocean and we have had years when houses built too near streams in the Santa Cruz mountains have been washed away too and sometimes if it occurred at night when people were asleep I'm not sure they made it out okay.
So, it's very important (more than the drought years from 2000 until now) to remember just how bad it got between 1980 and 2000.
This is a good year to remember just how bad living in this area can get in some years. For example, the Highway 1 bridge near Carmel was a cement and metal bridge and the flooding in I believe 1995 lifted that cement and metal bridge (because of tree buildup behind it) and washed that cement and metal bridge all the way into the sea. This would be considered impossible to have occurred by you and by me. Mercedes cars nearby Crossroads Shopping Center there were floating in underground garages with only their trunks visible because the front engine is the heavy part of front engine cars all the rest was submerged underwater. The whole Crossroads Mall was under about 1 foot of water and mud and the restaurant was under about 1 foot of mud too from the Carmel River. The water in the movie theater there at that time got 4 to 6 feet deep where it sloped downward and I think within a few years they had to close permanently because of black mold problems from the flooding which couldn't safely be corrected.
This also might have been 1995 when my then girlfriend's home had water coming out of the wall which was a 1925 cement block house covered by a beige to pink stucco that she owned then and another friend from Los Angeles of mine was also visiting us. We were talking in the living room when water spouted out of the wall and I knew this wasn't good at all into the living room it was about a 3 inch wide gusher of unending water.
I ran outside and got her aluminum ladder that could reach the roof before it collapsed or something and went barefoot in bermuda shorts to the roof because I'm good on a ladder but in the heavy rain I knew I might slip and fall or die in that heavy a down pour. I got onto the flat roof of my girlfriends home and there were 2 feet of water built up there from collected oak leaves clogging the drains so I removed the leaves which caused 6 feet of water 4 to 6 inches wide to spray out the now unclogged drains.
So, the roof didn't collapse and I didn't get injured because I went up there barefoot so I was safer this way. later I went to Ace Hardware and bought some kind of chicken wire and I made 3 foot by 3 food square boxes to capture the leaves before they clogged the drain next time. Because of this she never had this problem again and she sold the house I think in the late 1990s.
This may also have been the year that you could not leave the Monterey Peninsula except by Boat or plane because all roads out were flooded and no one could get in or out unless it was by boat or plane. It was like this for several days. So, Highway 1 also you couldn't get in or out of Big Sur unless you used 4 wheel drive roads either. No paved roads were open in or out so they started rescuing people by helicopter.
If this were Nepal they would have simply built a temporary suspension bridge but this is the U.S. and California with liability laws. The Army core of engineers had a new bridge up (a temporary one) so people could get food in Big Sur through Monterey.
The point of all this is: "When this area from Big Sur up to Eureka Floods often people don't make it because it becomes very very serious."
So, just because you are used to Big Sur to Eureka being civilized it doesn't mean it always is this way in emergencies.
So, considering the past storms and the future ones not here: "Batten down the hatches everyone!"
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