Ready for World's; the Barb Howe diary

Happy New Year! Mother Nature has decided to punish Northern California this season. We've been hit by several large storms, one after another. Friday's storm was the biggest and nastiest. The wind blew, rain fell and rivers overflowed their banks. Flood warnings repeated on the radio and people were evacuated from their homes in Northern California.

Living in a basement apartment, I didn't hear the hours of pounding rain and was surprised by the extent of the damage Saturday morning. The exit to work off of highway 101 was flooded and I could see the bike path on the other side under several feet of water. Sometimes during a leap tide the bike path will flood, but this was far more water than I'd seen before.

The highway pinched from four lanes to one as the other three integrated into the bay. Drowned cars lined the side of road while friendly State Policemen shooed everyone else on their way.

Josh called while I was at work to tell me of the destruction he saw in San Anselmo; a small town to the north. The strangest sight he saw was forty or fifty balls (soccer balls, baseballs, footballs, basketballs, etc) stuck on the side of a small bridge straddling the swollen creek. It was like the rain was in the mood to play and swept all the balls it could find out of garages, back yards and porches and sent them to play with a bridge abutment.

Read the entire Barb Howe diary here.