A few of the area’s reservoirs got a nice boost of water from last week’s bomb cyclone. As of Monday, Lake Mendocino has a little more than 81,000 acre-feet of water, which is actually down about 8,000 acre-feet in the past week. Lake Pillsbury has nearly 58,000 acre-feet of water, down slightly in the past week. Lake Sonoma is storing about 263,000 acre-feet of water, down about 30,000 acre-feet from a peak it hit a week ago.
Another storm is heading this way, and rain is expected to start falling as early as this morning. The National Weather Service is calling for rain through Sunday. The valleys are expected to get 2 to 3 inches of rain. The coastal mountains could see as much as 6 inches of rain by the time it’s all said and done. But, there is one major difference between this storm and the storm earlier this month. Forecasters are not calling for hurricane-force winds, which caused widespread damage and power outages. But, gusts could still top 30 mph in some places.
For the first time ever, a woman has been named the Sonoma County Vineyard employee of the year. Yolanda Cruz was awarded the honor last weekend, at a celebration presented by the Voice of the Vineyard Foundation. It’s not the first time Cruz has made history. In 2011, she became the first woman foreman at Geyserville’s Redwood Empire Vineyard Management, where she has worked since 2001.
Doctors are on alert as California tries to avoid a measles outbreak. The state has already seen two cases in less than two months. Compare that to four for all of last year. The most recent jump was in 2019 when 72 people got sick. The spread stopped during the pandemic but is on the rise again. Health officials say more unvaccinated people are traveling and potentially bringing the highly contagious disease back from other countries. Symptoms include a fever, cough, pink eye and a rash.
It looks like California is on the hook for its shelter program during COVID. Thousands of unhoused people began moving into hotels in 2020 to keep from getting sick. Cities and counties expected FEMA to cover a chunk of the bill but the agency says it won’t pay for any hotel stay that was longer than 20 days. The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services estimates it’s going to cost the state $300 million, at a time when budgets are already tight.
The California Highway Patrol says a 90 year old man was killed yesterday when he was hit by a semi. The man, from Kelseyville, was crossing State route 29 about 6:30 Tuesday morning. The semi driven by Antonio Ceja was headed northbound when he saw the man in the road. He was unable to stop the big rig in time. The man died at the scene; his name has not yet been released. The crash is still being investigated.
