Winter Storm Report - March 4 - 9, 2006

Mr. Mayor, Madam City Administrator, and City Council Members,

Winter storms dumped a total of 1.62 inches of rain on Oakland beginning Saturday, March 4, through Thursday, March 9.  Sodden, saturated ground along with high winds caused numerous rock and mudslides, flooding and tree failures throughout Oakland.  On Wednesday and Thursday nights,  temperatures were expected to drop low enough to bring possible snow or icy conditions to our upper hill neighborhoods, and therefore Public Works staff was prepared to lay sand on the arterials and collector streets in those neighborhoods to mitigate slippery conditions.  Fortunately this was not necessary on either night.

Storm Drainage crews cleaned, inspected, and hydro flushed 35 storm drains on 3/7/06.

Paving Crews responded to the slides that were reported during business hours on March 6.  Crews worked overtime until approximately 9:00 p.m. clearing mudslides and removing debris from the public right-of-way.

Tree Services received 17 emergency calls between Saturday, March 4, and Tuesday, March 7, 2006.  Eleven locations were reported having trees down, three locations were for limbs down.  Two locations had broken and hanging limbs (still connected to the tree).  One location was for trees leaning into the road.

The Call Center remained closed during the weekend and was open during regular business hours for dispatching crews for the cleanup of mudslides, flooding and tree failures.

86 sandbags were distributed by Public Works’ staff in response to flooding calls and for citizens for their own private use.  One crew was assigned to make sandbags throughout the weekend, making a total of 1,000 sandbags.

Amount of Rainfall (http://www.weather.gov/climate/index.php?wfo=mtr)

Location of Problem Areas:

• On March 6, a landslide caused tree failure on a vacant lot at 1305 Alvarado Road.  The tree brought down power lines and resulted in closing the street.  Once PG&E cleared their utilities, the standby tree crew responded to open one lane for traffic.  A Tree Service crew returned the following day, March 7th, to complete the tree work.

The following mudslides were reported to Fire Alarm yesterday evening.  The Drainage swing shift crew was dispatched and barricaded each of the reported slides:

• On 3/6/06 a small mudslide was reported by Fire Alarm at Charring Cross and Sherwick Rd. 128 was dispatched around 11:00pm and placed barricades making the area safe for traffic. A phone call was made to Heavy Paving the next morning and the slide was placed on their agenda to be removed ASAP.
• On 3/6/06 a small mudslide was reported by Fire Alarm at Skyline and Tunnel RD. 128 was dispatched around 12:00pm and placed barricades making the area safe for traffic. A phone call was made to Heavy Paving the next morning and the slide was placed on their agenda to be removed ASAP.
• Large sinkhole was reported by Fire Alarm around 9:30 p.m. at Chabot Rd and Roanoke. 128 was dispatched and placed barricades making the area safe for traffic. A phone call was made the next morning to Sewers and the sinkhole was given high priority.
• On 3/6/06 around 8:30 p.m., 128 responded to a call from Fire Alarm involving a car that had crashed into a building. Alvin Pillars (the leader) reported that it was not possible to board up the large hole that the car created for safety reasons. Also, a large and heavy wrought iron fence had fallen to the sidewalk and was apparently too large to be picked up by two people. Mr. Pillars was instructed to barricade this section of the sidewalk off until a crew can be dispatched in the morning.

Number of Calls Received (Please see attachment.)

• 80 – Total calls received
• 17 – Tree related calls
• 25 – Mudslide, rockslide and pothole related calls
• 38 – Sewer and Storm Drain related calls

Facilities-related service requests:

• Fire Station #6 - Roof leak over the kitchen - In process of repair
• Rose Garden - Storm water leak in electrical conduit and in the stairway to the restrooms - In process of repair
• West Oakland Library - Roof leak over Circulation desk and Children’s Reading Room - In process of repair
• San Antonio Park - Broken storm drain - In process of repair
• East Oakland Senior Center - Front entry - In process of repair
• Fire Station 20 - Hallway roof leak - In process of repair

In closing, our staff remains very responsive and will continue to work on the remaining items and prepare for the next storm events.