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Permanente, Stevens Creek trails reopened in Mountain View after flooding causes weekend closures

Update: The Stevens Creek and Permanente trails reopened in the morning on March 13.

Stevens Creek trail in Mountain View experienced some major erosion, pictured, during the last atmospheric river rainstorm in January 2023. The trail is currently closed due to flooding concerns on March 10, 2023. Photo courtesy Kate Harrison.

Mountain View is mostly unscathed from major storm damage so far, with no power outages reported in the city on Friday, March 10. But due to flooding, both Permanente and Stevens Creek trails were closed over the weekend.

According to Mountain View’s storm updates webpage, the two trails were closed around 8:45 a.m. on March 10 due to flooding concerns. The trails both reopened in the morning on March 13.

“The National Weather Service has issued both a Flood Watch and Wind Advisory for the Bay Area including Santa Clara Valley, which includes Mountain View,” city officials wrote in a 7:30 a.m. update. “The Flood Watch remains in effect until 10 a.m. Sunday, March 12 while the Wind Advisory is in effect until 4 p.m. Friday, March 10.”

The city added in the update that, per the National Weather Service, “gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects,” and also warned that tree limbs could be blown down and power outages may occur as soils remain saturated.

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According to PG&E’s outage map, there were no outages in Mountain View on March 10. The closest active outages as of 11:30 a.m. were in Los Altos and Sunnyvale, but only impacted a handful of customers.

A 4:09 p.m. update from the city added that it has so far received one report of a downed tree from the storm, which happened on private property in the 100 block of Calderon Avenue.

Despite the relatively mild impacts so far, Foothill College announced that its campus in Los Altos Hills would be closed on March 10 due to the inclement weather.

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Permanente, Stevens Creek trails reopened in Mountain View after flooding causes weekend closures

by Malea Martin / Mountain View Voice

Uploaded: Fri, Mar 10, 2023, 12:36 pm
Updated: Mon, Mar 13, 2023, 9:03 am

Update: The Stevens Creek and Permanente trails reopened in the morning on March 13.

Mountain View is mostly unscathed from major storm damage so far, with no power outages reported in the city on Friday, March 10. But due to flooding, both Permanente and Stevens Creek trails were closed over the weekend.

According to Mountain View’s storm updates webpage, the two trails were closed around 8:45 a.m. on March 10 due to flooding concerns. The trails both reopened in the morning on March 13.

“The National Weather Service has issued both a Flood Watch and Wind Advisory for the Bay Area including Santa Clara Valley, which includes Mountain View,” city officials wrote in a 7:30 a.m. update. “The Flood Watch remains in effect until 10 a.m. Sunday, March 12 while the Wind Advisory is in effect until 4 p.m. Friday, March 10.”

The city added in the update that, per the National Weather Service, “gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects,” and also warned that tree limbs could be blown down and power outages may occur as soils remain saturated.

According to PG&E’s outage map, there were no outages in Mountain View on March 10. The closest active outages as of 11:30 a.m. were in Los Altos and Sunnyvale, but only impacted a handful of customers.

A 4:09 p.m. update from the city added that it has so far received one report of a downed tree from the storm, which happened on private property in the 100 block of Calderon Avenue.

Despite the relatively mild impacts so far, Foothill College announced that its campus in Los Altos Hills would be closed on March 10 due to the inclement weather.

Comments

That MV guy
Registered user
Jackson Park
on Mar 13, 2023 at 8:26 pm
That MV guy, Jackson Park
Registered user
on Mar 13, 2023 at 8:26 pm

In the 1970s and 80's they'd send tractors down into the dry creek beds to clear away brush and debris. It's clogged branches and junk piling up that blocks the water flow so that it swirled around and erodes the levee banks.

But ever since they built the creek trail they blocked some of the access points where they could drive a bulldozer down there for maintenance reasons. In fact, in the photo above there use to be a dirt access ramp built into the bank where one could drive heavy machinery down there. They stopped using it and it eventually eroded away.

Before the El Nino of the late 1990s they did a lot of clearing in preparation of expected heavy storms and man, did we get some. I didn't see anything of the type being done this time. Maybe I missed something? M.V. and cities upstream need to get on the ball and service these creekbeds. Too late now until it dries out again.


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