Los Gatos, Saratoga report minor damages, no injuries from ‘bomb cyclone’
As an aggressive “bomb cyclone” made its way across California yesterday, the area was met with strong winds and moderate rainfall that caused flooding and left tens of thousands of residents without power.
Los Gatos and Saratoga officials said they responded to reports of minor damage like downed trees and ponding after Wednesday night’s peak wind and rainfall, but as of Thursday morning no major damages were reported in the area.
“Fortunately, we’ve been pretty lucky; we’ve had a few downed trees and minor ponding that happens as the storm drain system tries to work,” said Los Gatos Town Manager Laurel Prevetti. “We actually did pretty well, all things considered. … We’re in really good shape compared to other communities in the South Bay.”
More than 11,000 South Bay residents were without power as of Thursday morning, and several roads across Santa Clara County were closed due to mudslides, flooding and downed trees. The storm was blamed for the deaths of a child and 19-year-old woman in the North Bay.
Saratoga reported nine downed trees, flooding on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Pierce Road and debris in roadways.
There were sporadic power outages across the West Valley that impacted a small number of residents.
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Los Gatos declared a state of emergency for the next seven days, Prevetti said.
“This enables us to handle any kind of storm response a little bit more flexibly,” Prevetti said. “It's consistent with the governor’s declaration and our county declaration. We did take that step, that will help us with any reimbursements or claims of damage.”
The town closed its parks and trails to keep residents safe, and the Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department reached out to the local homeless population to make sure they had a safe place to go.
“We basically have a homeless liaison in our police department, and every Tuesday they go to the known locations of our unhoused and talk with them,” Prevetti said. “Yesterday it was clear they were all aware of the storm coming. … Officers are going to be checking hourly to make sure, as the water levels are most likely going to be rising over time.”
Some of Los Gatos’ storm drainage systems date back to the 1800s, and town staff were concerned about them overflowing, Prevetti said. They had workers monitor the hot spots.
Meteorologists forecast more rain over the next several days, with two more atmospheric river storms set to hit the area Saturday and Monday.
“This storm is a multi-day event; some say that the various storm systems will be with us through Wednesday now,” Prevetti said. “We want to make sure we’re really prepared. I think a lot of our proactive storm drain work really paid off because things are draining pretty well.”