By the Daily Post staff
• Creek flood monitors fail;
• Palo Alto runs out of sandbags;
• Water flow on San Francisquito Creek exceeds 1998 flood
UPDATE, 5:47 p.m. — The National Weather Service has rescinded the flood warning for Palo Alto. However, heavy winds are expected tonight, which could blow debris into the creek. Most roadways have re-opened. But the El Camino Real underpass under University Avenue remains closed.
5:15 p.m. — Today’s water flow on San Francisquito Creek, as measured at Stanford, was 7,420 cubic feet per second, which exceeds the highest flow measured in the 1998 flood, which was 7200 cfs. That’s according to the creek Joint Powers Authority, the agency formed by Palo Alto, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and other entities in stop flooding on the creek.
The JPA says in a statement that the creek flow has subsided slightly as of 4:30 p.m., but as rain continues to fall, the creek may rise again quickly, and the flood risk remains high.
NOAA forecasts and flow models indicate that creek flow will subside over the next few days. However, the soil is saturated with water, and so any rainfall will run off into the creek. Another storm is forecast to arrive on Wednesday (Jan. 4) and last two days.
The JPA notes that today’s high point came during a falling tide. In 1998, the tide was high when the creek overflowed its banks and flooded nearby homes.
3:45 p.m. — The city of Palo Alto has just issued a “flooding alert,” saying San Francisquito Creek has reached “flood monitoring stage.” The alert says that people should be aware of the potential of flooding at the Pope-Chaucer bridge in the next 30 minutes. That would suggest water is about to go over the top of the creek banks because it can’t get through the bridge’s narrow passage, which gets clogged with debris, and heavy rains have started again.
3:08 p.m. — The city has run out of sandbags at the sandbag station at the Rinconada Tennis Courts at the corner of Newell Road and Hopkins Avenue. City employees are looking for more bags and hope to begin handing them out in the next few hours.
The city has been advising people to put sandbags near doors and other entrances where water might seep into their homes.
1:53 p.m. — Palo Alto police say that the sensors at Chaucer Street and Waverley Street on the Creek Monitor page at www.cityofpaloalto.org/creekmonitor are not functioning properly.
City employees are monitoring both bridges and they report the water levels are receding. The creek monitors were one of the actions the city agreed to take after a devastating flood in 1998 damaged thousands of homes in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park.
11 a.m. — Heavy rain headed down San Francisquito Creek is getting trapped by the narrow opening at the Pope-Chaucer bridge, resulting in flooding in the immediate neighborhood.
In February 1998, the same thing happened. Debris in the creek clogged up the narrow passage under the bridge, causing a flood that extended throughout north Palo Alto and parts of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. The cities have had 25 years to replace the bridge. Replacement is scheduled for 2024, though the date is constantly being delayed by objections from residents or litigation.
A 1999 lawsuit by 27 families in the flooded area, led by attorney John Hanna who lives in the Crescent Park neighborhood, sought have the two cities remove the bridge. In 2004, the cities of Menlo Park and Palo Alto settled with the residents. The cities refused to remove the bridge but they paid the residents a combined $3.5 million to drop the lawsuit.
Last year, residents criticized plans that they said would replace the Pope-Chaucer span with what they called a “super bridge.”
Here’s a link to a series of stories the Post did in 2018 that looked back at what has happened since the 1998 flood.
Below are photos of today’s flooding from Menlo Park resident Brielle Johnck. The school in the first shot is Duveneck.
Replace the bridge!!!
We’re in the middle of an emergency, so where is our Valley Water rep Rebecca Eisenberg?
that’s a joke, right? what would she know about flood abatement?
Better question is where has our Utility Dept been? The former CPAU Manager — Ed Shikada now city manager — and the CPAU manager all make more than $400,000 and have raised our rates and enshrined the ability to keep overcharging forever for such superior service.
Hello, this is Rebecca Eisenberg. I was just sworn in a couple weeks ago and it is true that I am your new Director on Valley Water District! As the change candidate who beat a two-time incumbent, I have sworn to accomplish – and have already begun working on — big institutional improvements to our Water District on behalf of the community. I am grateful to have an opportunity to respond and introduce myself here!
Being only a month on the job, I am not sufficiently informed about San Francisquito Creek and the Pope-Chaucer Bridge even to know whose primary responsibility it is to prevent this type of flooding – the JPA, individual cities, the Water Districts (SMC/SCC), or a combination of the above. I am fairly certain, however, that getting this done will require the cooperation and coordination of more than one impacted city, and to be blunt, the City of Palo Alto does not have a good history or reputation of working well with others. This has been made clear to me multiple times in numerous ways, now that I serve in a regional capacity. That said, I am optimistic that the new Palo Alto City Council, with its new members and fresh perspectives, can move that in a more productive direction, and I am eager and excited to work with the new Council to serve and better protect our community. We must take action urgently.
Overall, from my perspective as a new member of the new Water District Board, I think that Palo Alto and our neighbors have much to look forward to. The new Valley Water Board is committed to supporting staff’s science-based approaches, and is dedicated to do a better job of involving the community in every decision that involves them/us.
With that in mind, I urge you to contact me personally (reisenberg at valleywater dot org) and the board generally (board at valleywater dot org) with your perspectives, experiences, suggestions, and ideas. I also encourage to anyone and everyone interested and available, to speak at our next Valley Water Meeting so that the entire Board and community can have the opportunity to hear you and consider your perspectives.
For the past couple years, Valley Water Board meetings have been held the second and fourth Tuesday at the month at 11 am (closed session) and 1 PM (open session) but I along with a few of my colleagues are working towards potentially moving one or both meetings a month back to the evening time so that more people can participate. (We welcome thoughts on that issue in fact!) For now, our next meeting is at 11 am (closed session) and 1 PM (open session) either in person at the Valley Water Headquarters at 5750 Almaden Expy, San Jose, CA 95118 or on Zoom.
In my mind, perhaps due to the difficult mid-day timing of the meetings, something that is somewhat missing from our meetings is the direct experience and perspective of community members in addition to environmental advocates and engineers. Actually, I think we can use more participation all around. The Water District impacts us in so many more ways that I had imagined before choosing to pursue this role, and we all deserve to be informed and involved in the decisions that impact us.
Thanks so much for mentioning me here, and I look forward to meeting you!
Best regards,
Rebecca
My God, we elected a water board member who doesn’t know the history of this problem. It’s not a secret. It was well-covered by the newspapers, but Rebecca is probably one of those people who doesn’t keep up on the news. What has she done that qualified her for the water board?
Hello, OMG! Thanks for mentioning me again. So you know, Valley Water District serves the water needs of all 2 million residents of Santa Clara County, a geographical area that starts from the Chaucer Bridge to the North all the way down to the Pacheco Pass (past Gilroy) to the South. The mission of Valley Water is three-fold:’
(1) Ensure the provision of affordable, clean water to all 2 million residents of the county — I assume you enjoy your access to clean water?
(2) Protect our natural environment (and regenerate ecosystems that previously have been harmed) — this IMO was not done well enough by my predecessors, but our new Board is on track to improve matters greatly.
(3) Protect residents and communities from climate events, including — among other events — flooding.
The Chaucer Bridge specifically and the San Francisquito Creek generally fall into an usual area because it spans 2 counties (and thus two water districts) as well as multiple cities, including Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Mountain View. Making changes in one part of the watershed — e.g. with dams — will impact other areas. Too much development — especially sprawl that replaces natural ground cover with concrete and other non-porous materials — leads to flooding because the water cannot flow down into the ground as it should (due to all the concrete) and thus flows out. The thing we know for sure is that it was human behaviors and human interference with natural waterways that created ths danger, and many rationally believe that further human intervention is unlikely to improve matters sustainably. So while I may not know exactly what the news said about this particular bridge among thousands in our District, I can assure you that I approach these matters from a point of view of science rather than politics.
I can see this particular problem is extremely important to you, which is exactly why I hope that you will exercise your rights to inform the Board of your perspective of this problem at our next Board Meeting on January 10. I look forward to seeing you there — and don’t worry, I do not think that they will require you to say your name; and you can complain about me all you want there — I won’t stop you (although my colleagues may).
Finally, I was elected on November 8, so I assume you knew enough about my qualifications to vote for or against me then. If you did not exercise your rights at the polls, it makes little sense to complain about the almost-50,000 folks who voted me in. I hope you will give me a chance; I offer you the same.
Thanks for considering, and Happy New Year!
Rebecca says, “i assume you enjoy your access to clean water?”
I live in Palo Alto and my water comes from the SFPUC’s Hetch Hetchy sysytem, as does everyone else’s, Nobody in Palo Alto gets their water from Valley Water, or whatever they call it.
We do have to pay a tax to this district, but we don’t get anything from them except flood protection — which hasn’t worked out very well.
Rebecca, I know you’re new to all of this but you should learn the basics of your job before you start talking down to your constituents.
Of course Eisenberg doesn’t know the source of Palo Alto’s water. I see on another thread involving Sam Bankman-Fried that she doesn’t know the difference between bond and bail, and she claims to be an attorney.
“Hello, OMG! Thanks for mentioning me again” Rebecca, you sound like a teenager on Facebook or TikTok. You won the election, so stop campaigning. And stop griping about people who might not have voted for you having the audacity to complain. Just address the issue. Now that you’ve got the job, take responsibility. What are you going to do about this?
To be fair, she was addressing the previous poster whose name was “OMG”
Today’s flood was a foreseeable problem, and the cities have been dragging their feet. So we’re doomed to repeat the same problems as we did in the 1990s. Our leaders are all talk and no action. Nothing gets done. We can’t stop the rain, but we can prepare for a flood, if we’re thinking ahead.
And they have had 25 years to complete this. 2024 (when the bridge is currently scheduled to be replaced) is too far down the road, so to speak, and delays keep happening due to neighborhood complaints and budget wrangling. Enough already. Replace the bridge.
There was severe flooding AFTER the bridge too. I personally saw it overflow before and after the University Ave bridge, on both sides of the creek. I have a video of the creek overflowing along Crescent Dr and right after the University Ave Bridge into East Palo Alto and Palo Alto.
We pay our city manager and his staff a lot of money to be prepared for things like this, and nothing has changed since 1998. Get rid of them all and start from scratch. There’s no excuse for not preparing for an emergency that was known two decades ago.
Our highly paid city manager is the former manager of the Utilities Department. Both he and the current head make more than $400,000.
This whole thing is inexcusable.
The bottom line here is … you can’t count on the city to do anything right or on time. in an emergency, you’re on your own!
You’ve got to wonder if this wouldn’t be a problem if the residents would allow the banks of San Francisquito Creek to be lined with concrete like Matadero Creek?
Umm once in 175 year rainfall and it is someone’s fault. Sure beats me.
I’ve heard of “once in a hundred year” storm, and once in 50 years, but once in 175 years is really odd. Sounds like a term a government planner would make up to deflect blame.
This is not a once in 175 year rainfall. It’s a predictable event
People want some charm, not a large industrial superbridge. Perhaps a design with charm that can be raised like a drawbridge when needed for storms.
I have written multiple times to both Pal Alto and Menlo Park suggesting that the creek needs to be cleared of debris, but both continue to allow trees to be cut into logs and left in the creek. Clogging at the bridge is therefore predictable and purposeful.
Face it, the residents don’t want a suitable bridge, so they sue… until it floods, then they sue. Do you see the pattern?
You all had a chance to change things after the previous flood. A referendum was voted down to clear out the creek and other tributaries because it would interfere with the aesthetic of the neighborhood. It was only a matter of time before it happened again. Glad I moved out of the area.
@Former, do you remember what year that went to the voters? I don’t remember it being on the ballot.
Flooding happens everywhere, and she’s not very popular in Palo Alto. Do what you have to do during a flood (sandbags, etc.) and you’ll see that life goes on. The sky isn’t falling.
OMG, an elected official responded to a voter’s question, and didn’t stick their head in the sand! Thank you to Eisenberg for showing up and being a visible face in the storm.