This mid-winter season has been a time for a lot of non-holiday news. For example, coming out of the Midwestern and the Eastern U. S. are the results of the recent Iowa caucuses and the debates in New Hampshire. Here in the Bay Area we had a tragedy, on Christmas Day, at the San Francisco Zoo, when a tiger escaped and killed a San Jose teenager. And then police killed the tiger.

As the New Year got started, however, the biggest news here was the weather. Last Thursday, we were visited by the first of a series of impressive storms, and on Friday the most violent one hit us. On that day, there were winds that often approached hurricane force…and lots and lots of rain. Here where I live in the North Bay, we got about 4 inches of precipitation in one day, much in the form of blinding, horizontal rain. It was a little scary, especially when the power went out early on Friday morning at my apartment. And then, there were reports of the San Rafael-Richmond Bridge being closed because the winds were flipping semi trucks over in the middle of the span.

I had no idea when my power might return. There were over half a million of us without power here in the Bay Area, and no estimate for how long we would all have to live this way. Happily, my power was restored by the end of the day Friday. Right now, though, on Sunday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that there are still 50,000 without power in the area.

The photo above is of Corte Madera Creek coursing its way through the College of Marin (Kentfield, CA) campus last Friday. This stream is usually a mere trickle but, on this day, it was a muddy, debris-laden, roaring force of nature.

They say the rains are going to continue, although we’re supposed to be getting things cleaned up and back to normal very soon. This morning, in the parking lot outside Starbuck’s, I talked to two PG&E linemen who asked me for directions! They told me they were here from Bakersfield to help with the devastation.