On the coast and in the Santa Cruz mountains, residents assess damage and brace for rain
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - While some are taking this latest storm in stride, others are bracing for it after suffering damage from the waves and weather in recent days.
In the hours after one storm ended, and before the next began, crews assessed the damage to the Santa Cruz Wharf.
"There's some structural damage to the underneath of the Dolphin Restaurant. Some pilings got knocked out, and it's sagging a little bit, as you can tell," says Patrick Mason, field service crew leader at the Santa Cruz Wharf.
The Dolphin is now closed. But when the waves struck and the pilings cracked, people were inside.
"When you heard the crack of that piling, you know, it's really loud. It's like thunder a little bit and then the floor just kinda dropped," says Lance Haggard, operations manager at the Dolphin restaurant.
The end of the wharf is blocked off and will likely take months to repair.
For locals like Mark Woodward, who goes by Native Santa Cruz on social media, this is heartbreaking news.
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It was a soggy wet day in the Bay Area, but that didn’t bother everyone in the Bay Area. Some were more prepared than others.
"Back to rebuilding. Add another wharf to our list of the three [wharves] in Santa Cruz that have been damaged or destroyed," Woodward says.
For some, the weather was not a deterrent.
"So I'm an optimist, and I'm going to show up to play volleyball whenever," says Margaret Anderson of Scotts Valley.
From the courts to the waves, the athletes were still out.
But surfers did issue a warning.
"Don't come out if you don't know what you're doing," says Devin Murphy of Santa Cruz.
In the Santa Cruz Mountains, slick roads are already taking their toll. Crash after crash backed up traffic along Highway 17.
And throughout the Bay Area, PG&E is staging crews. They say with high winds expected, they brought in extra equipment.
"We're ready for anything. If the weather does get worse, and we see storm-related damage, we have all the resources we need in place to respond," says Megan McFarland of PG&E.