Storm passes through Gilroy, dry weather expected this week

The weekend weather had Gilroyans staying warm inside their homes, where folks hid from the rain, kept safe from localized flooding and avoided treacherous driving conditions. 

The recent storm hovered over South County longer than other areas in the county and the Central Coast region, giving the Garlic Capital a generous 4.2 inches of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Charles Bell.

Comparatively, San Jose got 2.45 inches and Hollister got 1.73 inches during the same five days. Morgan Hill was the wettest in the region with 4.7 inches falling from Wednesday to Sunday.

The wind and wetness left 2,969 homes in the Gilroy area briefly without power. The largest power outage took place from 8:10 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday and impacted 2,770 homes on the west side of town near Santa Teresa Boulevard, according to spokeswoman Monica Tell of Pacific Gas and Electric. The outage was caused by damage to a power line from the wind and rain. 

The remaining 200 homes that lost power Saturday were scattered around the city. As of 10 a.m. Monday, all power in the area had been restored. 

Erica Elias, California Highway Patrol officer, said that motorists were cautioned to drive slow because of the wet road conditions, but that no major car crashes or incidents occurred. 

Bell said that roadway flooding on U.S. 101 was reported over the weekend, but that he saw no reports of flash floods or flooding of rivers and streams.

The storm was not unusual for this time of year, Bell said, adding that the precipitation will benefit agriculture in the region come spring.

“The good part is now everyone has a chance to dry off,” he said.

Meteorologists expect a slight chance of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday – perhaps a half inch or so throughout the region – but the remainder of the week is going to be mild and sunny. 

Todd Barreras, the streets supervisor with the City of Gilroy, said that Gilroy experienced localized flooding due to leaves and debris such as cardboard boxes, cans, toy balls and a fireworks launcher clogging the tops of storm drains.

This week, street maintenance staff with the City plan to remove leaf piles, sweep streets and fill potholes.