Storm cleanup continues; wet roads for Wednesday's AM commute

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - The Bay Area is getting a few hours to dry out from Tuesday's storms before the next round rolls in during Wednesday morning's commute.

The California Highway Patrol is already advising drivers to leave extra time for their commute and if at all possible stay home and stay off the roads.

A day of on and off rain left treacherous conditions on highways and roads around the Bay Area.

A station wagon crashed on northbound highway 101 in San Francisco Tuesday afternoon; just one of the hundreds of calls highway patrol responded to throughout the day.

"Unfortunately we had a lot of crashes," said Art Montiel from the CHP.  "Officers going from one call to another."

Officers said the most common accident in rainy conditions are minor bumper to bumper collisions where drivers simply didn't leave enough stopping distance. But the rain brings another problem, slick roads.

"A lot of them are spin outs going onto the freeway," said Montiel. "They're taking the onramp and they're just going a little bit too fast and they just lose control of the vehicle."

Tom Aubert's job as a contractor has him out on the roads all day. He says he saw first hand how dangerous the roads can be. "It was slick out, it was slick," said Aubert. "The truck got a little sideways getting on the Whipple onramp at one point, but it was fine."

Standing water was another common problem. CHP responded to reports of 12-18 inches of standing water on 280 near McLaughlin Avenue.

It wasn't just the freeways. In San Francisco, public works crews scrambled from one intersection to another vacuuming out clogged catch basins if the drains get blocked even a moderate rain can flood an intersection.

"If the catch basin is covered, there's a chance it will pond," said Chris McDaniels from San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. "Go to another street a block away. We want to make sure we get it so it doesn't cause a flooding issue at the intersection."

With more rain in the forecast the CHP is advising drivers to leave more time for their morning commute. "We know that it's going to be raining tomorrow morning," said Montiel. "You get commute traffic, people leaving last minute leave extra time, we know it's going to be busy. officers are going to be going from call to call again."

CHP said every available officer will be on the roads Wednesday morning, but that even with the rainy, wet conditions, they still see distracted drivers.  Lastly,  they advise texting driving is especially dangerous no wet roads when you're behind the wheel.