NEVADA CITY, Calif. January 17, 2017 – During a brief special meeting today Supervisors heard from a report from the Office of Emergency Services outlining the damage caused by a series of atmospheric rivers last week throughout Nevada County.
The Town of Truckee and the City of Grass Valley declared local emergencies last week. Truckee was without power for an extended period of time, with several feet of snow covering many more potential problems.
Over the eight-plus day time-period, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District (TDPUD) experienced over 46,000 customer interruptions. The most severe days were Jan. 4 (4,837 customers out of power), Jan. 7 (6,569 customer out of power), and Jan. 10-11 (all 13,249 customers out of power due to an NV Energy transmission outage). In total, the TDPUD responded to almost 3,000 outage calls from customers regarding almost 400 total outage incidents.
State Parks had to close the parking lot and access to the old 49’er bridge on the South Yuba due to a large landslide.
The City of Grass Valley had to contend with road flooding, Wolf Creek overflowing and causing damage to homes on Mill Street and, of course, the massive sinkhole off Freeman Lane – now seven stories deep.
The City of Nevada City had to close one of the main intersections after Deer Creek overflowed, causing damage to several businesses and a sinkhole opened at the confluence of Little Deer Creek and Deer Creek, otherwise known as the Stonehouse parking lot.
A hazard tree was removed today from Banner Quaker Hill Road by PG&E with the collaboration of Public Works. Since the beginning of the storm series, hundreds of downed trees have been removed from roadways and power lines.
The Town of Washington lost the intake pipe for their drinking water system and Maybert Road is partially washed out and impassable at this time.
Lake Wildwood’s wastewater treatment plant was overwhelmed by an estimated 2.9 million gallons of storm surge, a small spill of raw sewage occurred but was immediately diluted. Lake Wildwood itself has many coves clogged with sediment and uprooted trees.
Mudslides and boulders on many roads, uprooted trees and damage on many private properties round out this partial report.
The county’s disaster declaration may result in state and federal funding to repair the public infrastructure. Private business owners may be eligible for low-cost SBA loans.
The Board of Supervisors ratified the emergency declaration by a 4-0 vote with Supervisor Hall absent.