Power outages persist across Bay Area, Danville residents frustrated over flooding
DANVILLE, Calif. - It has already been a nightmare start to the new year for some Danville residents. The neighborhood in the area of Brookside Drive flooded during Saturday’s historic rains, damaging homes and leaving the streets covered in thick mud.
"I couldn’t believe it," said resident Diana Yuen. "Total devastation here. We feel like we are just on our own."
"My inside of the house was just completely filled with sludge and mud. The crawl spaces were all filled with silt. I mean it’s disgusting," said neighbor Rachel Medrano.
Neighbors were out Monday night shoveling debris and clearing storm drains. Dianna and Gabriel Yuen shared pictures and videos with us to show how bad it got.
"The water kept coming up and coming up," said Dianna. She showed us a picture of her Fiat submerged in water.
Gabriel said he trudged through waist-deep water to rescue their dogs. "We basically got there in the nick of time to get our dogs out of the house."
The Yuen’s took us inside their home to give us a look at the damage. They started ripping up the floors and moved furniture to a U-Haul to try to salvage it.
"We had to move everything out of first floor because we had to take everything out to mitigate mold," said Gabriel.
Residents say they’re worried this next storm could be even worse and want the town to do more to protect their homes.
"I really firmly believe they should have done something in preparation of the rain. The sewers should have been cleared here for us so that the water shouldn’t have risen so high," said Dianna.
Across town on Blackhawk Road, a huge tree knocked down power lines, and blocked lanes of traffic. PG&E had crews on site. Neighbors told us they had been without power for three days.
"It’s cold and dark. Without any power we can’t do much of anything," said resident Dick Bascon.
SEE ALSO: Weekend storm sets stage for more destruction as next wet wave hits Wednesday
"This has been an unprecedented storm for us," said Joe Calabrigo, Danville’s Town Manager.
Calabrigo said they routinely prepare for winter rain, but the magnitude and intensity of this storm overwhelmed the system.
"When the level of water in the streams has risen past the point where the pipe outfall is, then water can no longer flow into those creeks. And it begins to pond back up onto adjoining streets," said Calabrigo.