70-Mph Gales Whip San Francisco Bay Area

(01-04) 10:54 PST SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Golden Gate Transit suspended bus and ferry service, traffic on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was halted and power was knocked out to hundreds of thousands of people today as a dangerous storm blew into the Bay Area.

The Golden Gate Highway, Bridge and Transportation District suspended all bus service just after 9 a.m. because of flooding in central San Rafael and on Highway 101, where many of the lines operate. An hour later the district also suspended ferry service because of winds on the bay gusting as high as 70 mph, and other ferry lines said their boats would remain in port as well.

The gales blew over scaffolding outside a four-story apartment building in San Francisco. Numerous flights were delayed or canceled at San Francisco International Airport, and the power was out at Serramonte Shopping Center in Daly City.

The California Highway Patrol closed the eastbound Richmond-San Rafael Bridge after a gust of wind blew over an 18-wheel truck around 8:30 a.m. A short time later, the CHP also closed the bridge to westbound traffic.

More: http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/01/04/chronicle/archive/2008/01/04/MN87U9ERT.html

Everyone okay out there? I've measured close to 3 inches in the North Bay since these storms started. I've heard wind gusts hit as high as 100 mph in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Post your stories if you got them.

but we got wind up the wazoo. When it does rain its coming in nearly horizontal. Heavy winds from the south southwest.

See my reply below.

The weatherbands are highly defined.

I am in Tiburon, north across the Bay from San Francisco.

My house is directly over the water, about 100ft elevation.

Those gusts were whipping around Angel Island and vortexing straight up the hill (Tiburon is wrapped around a cove, which amplifies the gusts - especially where our set of houses are located).

We have experienced 90mph gusts before, but there things moving around on the decks and veranda that have never blown around.

And the storm is still rockin'.

I am going down the hill so I can watch the Bay from the seawall.

into another lane. And that storm was tame compared to the one Friday.

I used to work off of Lucky Drive in Corte Madera and every January, we'd
get flooded all the way across 101. The freeway was, literally, under water.
(This was during high tide)

I hear some people are still out of power. :(

I got soaked taking the puppy out, the wind was strong. There are trees down, lines down all over Ocean Beach. Does anyone know when this sucker will be outta here? My friend the grocer is looking at losing everything in his refrigerators. :(

It took me hours to figure out I had a light / radio that I could crank. Never could get a radio signal though.

My has last for a long time ..

We here in the East Bay at the foot of Mt. Diablo got pounded as well .
Lots of branches down and fences down as well .

I live in Walnut Creek by the way. It was quite a storm.

I'm right next door in Concord

It's not broken, but we tried to stake it, and that didn't work. I hope it's not gone, it gives lots of lemons.
I also had a leaking window-just got them 2 years ago. The company will come next week to fix it.

My son will be 20 on the 12th, and he went to Lake Tahoe with a few friends and one set of parents (they have 4 wheel drive)today. I tried to talk him out of it, quizzed him on what one does in an avalanche (?), and threatened to re-arrange his room if he left, all to no avail. The best I could do was to sneak a flashlight in his pack.

I hope they do OK.

you can get some lemons from my tree .

I hope your son stays safe

but it was a big orange tree. I had a tree service come out and they were trying to convince me to let them cut it down but I insisted they stake it and try and save it. They did and iirc that was like 7 years ago and that tree still puts out bumper crops of SWEET oranges every year from February to April.

I am in Tam Valley - our power was out from very early Friday until Sunday afternoon :-( It was so cold, we holed up at the Holiday Inn Express, which was FULL of people from Mill Valley!