Broken glass at Salesforce East in San Francisco; rain pummels region
Emergency crews concerned about glass windows on San Francisco high-rises
A report of a cracked window at a Salesforce high-rise in San Francisco on Tuesday has emergency crews concerned there could be a repeat of what happened last week. During last week's atmospheric river, the windows on dozens of high rise buildings around the city shattered, sending glass falling.
SAN FRANCISCO - Emergency officials in San Francisco on Tuesday asked the public to avoid the area of Mission Street at Salesforce East because of shattered glass.
Firefighters said the window at the building at 350 Mission Street was cracked, but no glass fell to the street.
"That glass is secure," said fire captain Jonathan Baxter. "Very unlikely that it’s going to fall and as a precaution we placed a temporary street closure on the 300 block of Mission between Fremont and Beale."
Officials haven't determined if the window was cracked during this latest storm or last week's atmospheric river.
Engineers were able to secure the building and no injuries were reported.
Last week, the same building had at least 20 broken or cracked windows, prompting the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection to issue a violation notice.
It was one of a half dozen high rises that had falling or broken windows following last Tuesday's bomb cyclone storm, a day volatile wind gusts and rain lashed the Bay Area.
On Monday, the city issued an emergency declaration allowing building inspectors to proactively assess potential dangers caused by windows, both old and new.
"We have got to get our hands around this problem – this is not happening in Singapore where there are cyclones, this is not happening in Chicago, which is famous for its wind," said Supervisor Aaron Peskin. "So we’ve just really got to figure this out, and we’ve got to mandate that 100% of these window systems are foolproof."
Throughout the Bay Area, the winds were gusting at high speeds and the rain was pummeling the region again in yet another punishing atmospheric river.
Several parks in Santa Cruz were closed because of the weather and a flood advisory in Marin and Sonoma counties was extended through noon.
The National Weather Service expected flooding along streets and highways as well because of excessive rainfall.