Storms flood area homes, freeways

The Associated Press

A powerful Alaskan storm began sweeping across California on Tuesday, flooding homes in San Francisco, cutting power to thousands and leading to what could be a record-breaking October for rainfall.

Many Sierra ski resorts were reporting their earliest openings in years, receiving a foot of snow since early Tuesday morning. That was on top of a base that already was 2 to 3 feet deep after a surprise storm last week.

"It's snowing like a son of a gun," said Norm Sayler, owner of Donner Ski Ranch at the 7,200-foot Donner Summit near Truckee.

The storm is expected to linger through Thursday, dropping several inches of rain across the state and up 2 feet of snow or more in the mountains. The National Weather Service forecast intense rainfall for Southern California, prompting flash flood warnings and fears of mudslides in mountain areas scarred by wildfires over the past year.

In San Francisco, some residents awoke in the early morning hours to the sound of water gurgling into their homes as the rain overwhelmed the city's underground storm drains.

"I turned the light on and could see water flooding from the walk-in closet out the bedroom door," said Paula Bauer, who was asleep with her husband when the water rushed down their driveway about 3 a.m. and into the basement they had remodeled into a master bedroom.

Swirling with mud, leaves and refuse from the street, the water rose to a foot-and-a-half deep before finally receding out a back door.

"Now it's just icky ... There's mud everywhere," said Bauer, a 48-year-old attorney. "The shower's just disgusting. This was filthy water, and it's just black."

The weather cleared briefly Tuesday afternoon, allowing Bauer and her neighbors to begin scraping out the mud. It was the fifth time their home has flooded since they bought it in 1994. From now on, she said, they'll park their cars on the street and fortify their driveway with sand bags.

The storm also flooded freeway lanes throughout the San Francisco Bay area and contributed to a clogged morning commute that included a toppled big rig on Interstate 880 in San Leandro.

Power was cut to thousands of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. customers, including about 2,000 in coastal Marin County who were left in the dark after lightning struck a utility substation shortly after midnight.