How to prepare for strong winds, avoid flooding during Sacramento’s atmospheric river storm

The city of Sacramento has activated a department operation center to coordinate storm response for the atmospheric river that is forecast to drop more than 2 inches of rain by Wednesday morning.

But Sacramento is unlikely to see much flooding due to the storm, said Carlos Eliason, a spokesman for the city’s utilities department.

“There will be some (flooding),” Eliason said, “and that’s partially going to be because there will be lots of leaves dropping in these storms, especially with a lot of wind.”

Winds are expected to gust to as high as 45 mph in the capital region, according to the National Weather Service. Ahead of the storm’s anticipated crescendo between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m., Eliason suggested several steps people can take to deal with issues that may arise.

Clear debris

Make sure leaf piles and storm drains near your house are free of leaves, sticks and other debris. That will help prevent localized flooding and allow rain to flow to drains via gutters.

Call 311

If your street is flooding, or you see a traffic signal that’s not working or any other irregularity that the city would need to resolve, don’t hesitate to call 311 or use the 311 app to report the problem.

“We have extra crews on hand right now to go and be able to clear those things up,” Eliason said.

But if it’s an emergency situation, still call 911. And if you see a downed power line, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District also suggests calling 911. You can report outages to SMUD at 888-456-7683 or fill out their form online.

Prepare for the wind

The Sacramento area is under a wind advisory through 10 p.m. Monday evening. In order to avoid damages, try to bring lawn furniture or other outdoor items into your garage. If you can’t get items into the garage, try to tie them down.

This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 10:41 AM.