Strong Bay Area storm brings evacuations, school closures, flooding

OAKLAND (KTVU) -- A powerful storm drenched several parts of the Bay Area on Tuesday, flooding roads, causing power outages, closing schools and prompting evacuations as rivers threatened to overflow their banks.

As of noon Tuesday, a flood warning was issued for East Palo Alto. Residents seeking shelter were urged to go to the East Palo Alto YMCA at 550 Bell Street.

Residents of Woodland Creek Condominiums in San Mateo were asked to voluntarily evacuate Tuesday afternoon. West Bayshore Avenue at Woodland Avenue was closed, authorities said.

Santa Cruz County officials were evacuating homes in the Felton Grove area because of flooding along the San Lorenzo River, authorities said.

More Evacuations

Evacuations were also reported in Ross Valley and San Anselmo in the North Bay as flood waters rise.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 people remain without power in the Bay Area this morning, the bulk of them in the North Bay, as PG&E crews work to repair storm-related outages in the region.

Power outages

As of around 4:20 p.m., PG&E was reporting 630 customers without power in San Francisco, 517 on the Peninsula, 1,025 in the East Bay, 2,623 in the South Bay and 2,476 in the North Bay, according to spokeswoman Andrea Menniti

Menniti said outages reached their peak around 5:20 a.m. when more than 18,000 customers were suffering outages in the region, including 9,664 in Santa Rosa and 7,125 in Vacaville.

"We've made significant progress since then," Menniti said. "We have extra crews on alert and they've been responding to outages as soon as they occur."

Residents are being reminded that if they see downed power lines, they should assume they are live and call 911 to report them immediately.

School closures

Several schools in the North Bay are closed Tuesday because of the stormy weather. Click here for a full list of closures.

In Marin County, the closures include Kentfield School District, Ross School District, Tamalpais Union High School District, the Sausalito Marin City School District and the Mill Valley School District.

In Sonoma County, schools in the Piner-Olivet Union School District, Guerneville School, the Harmony Union School District in Occidental, the Two Rock Union Elementary School District in Petaluma and Flowery Elementary School in Sonoma are closed.

The Suisun Valley K-8 School in Solano County is also closed.

Meanwhile, stormy weather has resulted in several park closures this morning in the North Bay, affecting tourism and transportation.

Due to winds with gusts estimated to be between 50 and 60 mph, the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District has closed the sidewalks on the Golden Gate Bridge. In addition to pedestrians, the bridge's sidewalk is also closed to bicycles.

Park and Recreation area closures

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area has closed the Marin Headlands Visitor Center and Muir Woods National Monument because of the stormy weather.

GGNRA officials have also closed Stinson Beach, Muir Beach, the Muir Beach Overlook and Tennessee Valley Beach.

Falling trees at the locations could pose significant safety hazards to visitors as well as staff, GGNRA officials said.

Bay City News contributed to this report. Refresh this page for updates.