High Winds, Downed Trees

The windstorm that blew through two days ago took down a lot of trees in the County.  Per the DJ article

More than 50 trees and 62 power structures fell or were damaged and 42,000 Pacific Gas and Electric customers were still without power midday Wednesday from high winds that swept through the Bay on Tuesday.

None were more dramatic than the redwoods that went down at BHS.  I was able to get a short video from a friend (not sure of the original videographer) that caught the action as one tumbling redwood took down another.  In total, four went down at BHS and Washington Park.  One Euc apparently went down on Easton and the city is worried enough about three more that they are coming down proactively.  Oddly enough, so far the 390 on El Camino Real held up under the crazy wind loads above 60 mph!  They must not be that unhealthy.  Check out the video and you may have to play around with your sound settings, but the audio is there.

Download BHS tree falling

And check out the size of the trunk and roots

Update 2/28:  PG&E reportedly repaired 200 downed power poles in San Mateo County and among the businesses that had their signs uprooted was this local landmark.

Comments

[resident]

Josh Becker is out ambulance chasing on the electric grid. See?

However, Sen. Josh Becker, D-San Mateo, expressed the electric company’s need for improved infrastructure.

“It seems the infrastructure is more 1923 than 2023 and it doesn’t feel acceptable,” Becker said.

He should spend his time working on things that matter like keeping the lights on instead of chasing every little green gremlin he sees in the shadows. Lets add way more demand on the grid way before its ready. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[J. Mir]

I can’t believe we’re still defending trees. Killer trees at that. “It’s their right to fall down! They’re sentient beings!!” A new low for humankind. 😏 btw the lady + dog that was killed there couple years ago is still fresh in everyone’s minds

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Dude. People have been Killed and become paraplegic from falling trees in Washington Park just a couple of years ago. The same thing has happened on California Dr. betwen Oak Grove/ Burlingame Ave. look it up. There really are a lot of crackpots here who have no idea WTF they are talking about. Occasionally I am a member of that Crew too. Look it up. "FOIA.' Check out the "COB" Settlement regarding that accident at Washington Park.' No matter how much maintenance and "evaluation" performed by the COB, Nature will always be unpredictable.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

By the way, the Park Dept. could be capable of preventing "some" of these Forest Emergencies. However there are and have been only two Forest Workers at the Park Dept. for at least 11 years. "Talk about being caught with your Trousers Down."
The Multi-Million Dollar Recreation Center required a much larger piece of the Pie than expected. So a reduction of services were required. Unfortunately, from my observation, "The City of Trees" cut back on the most important service provided to keep People and Property Safe.
The City of Trees may now become The City of Lawsuits.

[Paloma Ave]

Dear Burlingame City Council - The power is out again on the 1200 block of Paloma Avenue, as of 11:26 a.m.

The last outage, in February, lasted just shy of 21 hours.

Fortunately, I have a natural gas generator, that I will run for an hour, every four hours to keep my refrigerator working.

I will also be heating up my lunch on my gas stovetop.

Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT take my natural gas away!

[Paloma Ave]

Estimated power restoration TOMORROW at 11:00 PM!!!!

[HMB]

How many trees down on ECR? Got an alert from the county about road being closed in B'game because of fallen trees.

[Paloma Ave]

Okay, I am going to say something unpopular with the tree people in Burlingame.

After an almost 21 hour outage last month and a 6+ hour outage today, we need these old, shallow rooted trees to come down, sooner rather than later.

I remember how beautiful the canopy of trees were coming down from San Francisco in the 1960's.

But, as a 41+ year resident, we need to face facts!

[resident]

You want to be mad at someone? Be mad at Caltrans. They ignore the drainage flooding. They leave huge piles of bark for weeks. And when was the last time you saw them trim the upper branches to thin out the wind load? Ah, never.

[Peter Garrison]

Estimated “update” at 11pm…
36 hours minimum.
Using gas for cooking food left in refrigerator.

[Steve Harris]

Mad at Caltrans? How about mad at Caltrain for the three trees across the tracks? (Which makes no drainage sense) Fourteen trees went down yesterday in Burlingame. The two windstorms so far this year have caused major damage. Winds at 75 MPH was life threatening and that 75 MPH has never happened before. That was the worst windstorm this city has ever seen. Climate destruction (change is not the appropriate word) pretty much ensures this is going to occur again and more often. I love the trees on El Camino but even if Caltrans doesn't cut them down, they're coming down eventually one by one by the wind and looks to be sooner rather than later. It was non-stop sirens yesterday. Face reality.

[Steve Harris]

Those large trees were bending to an almost 45 degree angle from the strong wind gusts, something I had never seen until yesterday.

[Christopher Cooke]

There are two immediate causes for so many trees falling: (1) massive quantities of rain loosening up the soil around the roots and (2) extremely high winds. The shallow root systems of some trees and the failure to trim some may also have caused these trees to fall. But this was a large number!

[Peter Garrison]

At the gym for heat and phone charger.

Overheard: I bought an “All Electric!” home back in the day when it was considered so modern.

I’m in the cold and dark now.

[Toasty Tootsies]

My way vintage floor furnace with the vintage slide thermostat performed like a champ last night. Toasty tootsies all night.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Dear Joe.
I just spent a lot of time posting and editing a very important-at least in my opinion, an important post.
I timed out.
BS

[Joe]

holly, yes that happens sometimes when you are getting wordy (complete? :-) Just copy what you wrote and paste it back in on a refreshed comment box. Works for me every time.

[Joe]

Allow me to be a bit counterintuitive here--what did you expect?

If 14 trees fell in the whole town during a truly memorable storm and winds, and we know that are 490 Eucs just on ECR with many more around town then I guess these trees are actually in better health than some would leave us to believe! Just think--with a bit of real canopy management, some attention to the KNOWN flood zones and perhaps a bit of testing who knows how many would pass the test?

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

Thank you Joe.

[Peter Garrison]

And another thing: Right now the lawn mower-like humm of many gasoline generators is buzzing in our neighborhood.

Imagine a 48-60 hour power failure in the no-natural-gas future; the buzzing exhaust of thousands of gasoline generators instead of quiet, clean natural gas.

[Paloma Ave]

Thank you, Peter Garrison.

[Joe]

My power just came back on. 50 hours with no power except from my new gas generator. Big kudos to Cresco Equipment Rentals (and sales when they have no more to rent) for being there with a nice Generac. And if you don't have a Fenix PD35 rechargeable flashlight you should get one. Thanks to local realtor Raziel Ungar for handing them out a couple of years ago as a client appreciation gift. It's awesome.

And, of course, a big "You gotta be kidding" to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for outlawing gas furnaces and water heaters WHILE THE POWER WAS OUT FOR TWO DAYS. We are governed by idiots.

Thank the heavens that we had a gas furnace and a gas water heater or these would have been even more difficult days.

[hollyroller@ gmail.com]

"Easy Big Fella." Easy.

[Peter Garrison]

In terms of Disaster Preparedness; taking away a huge part of our ability to have the survival basics of heat and light is dumb and dangerous.

[Joe]

Yesterday's Daily Post headline "Residents give PG&E an earful" describes one Luisa Buada, CEO of Ravenswood Family Health, who felt "dehumanized" and asks "Are we (EPA) a forgotten city?" because they were out for 50 hours.

Hey Luisa, LOTS of people were out for 50 hours including much of westside Burlingame. I don't feel forgotten or dehumanized--just unlucky this time around. Get over yourself.

Jenny Bloom, a board member for the Ravenswood City School District, "said the superintendent and the board didn't receive any calls from PG&E." Who did? I don't know anyone. Do you have a cell phone? Can you find PGE.com and click on the outage map? Get over yourself.