Forecast: More wind, rain, cooler temperatures on the way
BY STEVE E. SWENSON, Californian staff writer sswenson@bakersfield.com
High winds and a downpour of rain wreaked havoc in Kern County Monday with tragic results. In Pine Mountain Club, winds blew a tree onto on a house, killing a man as he slept in his bed.
At about 9:30 a.m., a powerful gust blew over the 100-foot tree that fell onto the house of 21-year-old Devin Storz, crushing him to death, Kern County firefighters reported.
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The forecast
Rain is predicted every day through Sunday in Bakersfield and the Kern County mountains, the National Weather Service reported.
Temperatures will decline as the week progresses, resulting in lower snow levels later in the week.
And more winds are expected as well, although predictions put them lower than the stiff gusts of 60 to 80 mph that were reported in Kern mountains Monday.
Rainfall in Bakersfield, which totaled .65 inches from Sunday to 4 p.m. Monday is expected to increase by .10 inch Tuesday and a half-inch each on Wednesday and Thursday, the weather service predicted.
Alta Sierra Ski Resort at 7,100 feet got four inches of snow on Sunday and the snow is expected to continue there all week, the resort reported.
The snow level is expected to drop from about 6,000 feet Monday night to 4,900 feet Thursday, the weather service said.
Gusts of up to 49 mph Monday in Bakersfield will drop to about 28 mph on Tuesday. Gusts in Frazier Park of are predicted to drop to 38 mph Tuesday from as much as 60 on Monday. Winds in the mountains will be 25 mph or less.
The amount of rain is expected to taper off after Thursday, the weather service said.
Road conditions on highways and freeways are available by calling 1-800-427-Road (7623).
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Alex Horvath / The Californian Motorists travel along a flooded 23rd Street near the Chester Avenue interchange Monday afternoon. Heavy rains in the area caused city streets to flood for a time.
Alex Horvath / The Californian A motorist travels through a flooded Chester Avenue Monday afternoon after heavy rains in the area.
Alex Horvath / The Californian A large tree fell, due to the wind, onto the corner of H and Second streets Monday morning blocking the righthand lane.
Firefighters had to use chainsaws to relieve the weight of the tree from the man in the 1600 block of Freeman Drive, spokesman Sean Collins said.
Elsewhere around the county, trees, limbs and power lines fell into roadways, a burst of rain flooded streets, highways and underpasses, and power outages around Bakersfield affected nearly 7,200 homes and businesses, officials said.
City and Caltrans road crews on Monday were kept busy, as well as workers from PG&E trying to keep up with more than 30 outages in Bakersfield alone.
The outages in Bakersfield began about 8 a.m. and continued into mid-morning with more than 7,900 home and business customers affected, a PG&E spokeswoman said.
By 11:30 a.m., power was restored to all but about 1,500 customers, and by 4:30 p.m. only about 320 customers were without power, the spokeswoman said.
Other power outages were reported in Buttonwillow, Taft and Wasco, she said.
Meanwhile, a burst of mid-day rainfall flooded parts of downtown, Westchester, and various older parts of the city, according to Mike Conner of the city roads department.
About a half inch of rain fell in the valley while about an inch of rain fell in the mountain areas, the weather service reported.
Storm drains blocked by leaves contributed to the problems, and the quick rainfall shut down Union Avenue underpass near California Avenue, he said.
By early afternoon, Highway 166 from Old River Road to Highway 33 was closed due to flooding, Caltrans reported. No time was given when it was expected to reopen.
Temporary flooding was also reported on Highway 99 near Highway 58, and Edison Highway near Fairfax Road, Caltrans said.
One Californian blogger, Catherine Baker, reported her experience, "I was driving up 58 to Caliente in the middle of the downpour, and it was a real white-knuckle ride, getting blown all over the road, trying to avoid hydroplaning, etc. It goes down as one of the scariest driving experiences ever."
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