The first major storm of the season hit Monday night, dumping an
inch of rain on Gilroy. Yet, few residents have been left without
power, and little flooding has been reported.
The first major storm of the season hit Monday night, dumping an inch of rain on Gilroy. Yet, few residents have been left without power, and little flooding has been reported.
Compared to the rest of the Bay Area, Gilroy’s faring the storm well, said Matt Nauman, a spokesman for PG&E. About 40 customers lost power this morning around 6 a.m., but electricity to those homes was flowing again within an hour. As of noon, only three Gilroy customers were still without power, compared to about 13,000 customers in the South Bay, Nauman said. About 2,600 Morgan Hill residents also experienced a short power outage about 6 a.m.
About an inch of rain fell on Gilroy by noon, according to the Dispatch’s rain gauge.
The storm won’t start winding down until about midnight, according to Diana Henderson of the National Weather Service.
The NWS reported wind gusts of 56 miles per hour atop Mt. Hamilton northeast of Morgan Hill, and gusts of about 22 miles per hour in San Martin.
The season’s first storm will hover over the entire Bay Area until Tuesday night and has dropped more than three inches of rain in the Santa Cruz Mountains, according to Henderson.
Wednesday’s forecast includes “breezy” conditions and scattered showers, with sunny skies returning by Thursday, Henderson said.
Throughout PG&E’s entire service area, which extends from Eureka to Bakersfield, about 233,000 customers have been out of power for varying lengths of time since the storm began Monday night, Nauman reported. About 115,000 were still without power as of 11:45 a.m.
“It’s pretty unusual for this early in the season,” Nauman said of the blustery conditions. “It’s causing outages because the trees are still full of leaves so they’re heavier, unlike in January and February.”
