Over January, the Bay Area received record rain, with Marin receiving 7.92 inches of rain according to the National Weather Service, who recorded the totals.
In addition to the record rain, there were also king tides, which added to record flooding in the county.
King tides occur when the moon, earth and sun all align, so that the moon’s gravitational pull is at its strongest, leading to extreme high tides. The high tides mixed with the large amounts of rain overwhelmed the drain system, leading to flooding.
People across San Rafael felt the effects of this storm, especially those close to San Rafael High School. Neighbors close to the high school reported flooding across San Pedro road, and the San Rafael Police Department sent out messages to the community, urging people to avoid the roads for necessary travel.
Highway 101 was slowed to a stop between the Corte Madera and Larkspur exits because of the flooding. It took some residents over an hour and a half to pass the water. The Corte Madera exits were blocked by CalTrans and the California Highway Patrol to prevent any cars from getting stalled in the stand still water.
While the waters got up into the front parking lot, the school was lucky enough to be spared from the water reaching the buildings, with no damage being reported.
At Andy’s Local Market in Loch Lomond, residents said that the water reached heights they have not seen before.
Jaedon Higgins Jones, a senior who lives in Loch Lomond, said that the water was scary. “Walking my dog on the bank, it was slapping against the rocks like crazy,” he said. In past king tides he’s seen the water reach up pretty high on the breaker (the artificial barrier between the bay and the harbor), but never gotten to what it was like in January.
Other neighbors along point San Pedro Road said that in their 20 plus years of living in San Rafael, they’ve never experienced waters this rough. John and Trix Williams said that the flooding was unimaginable. “We had cars getting stalled, police and fire trucks pushing cars out of the still waters, and traffic for hours. Nothing like we’ve ever seen,” Trix said. Even with cars stalled and the police telling residents to not travel on San Pedro Road, they said people continued to do so.
Because this happened over break, there was no worry over what to do with students, staff and classes.
Mr. Dominguez, Principal of San Rafael High School, said that if this were to have happened during school hours, the response from the school would depend on the circumstance. “If any sort of unsafe weather conditions were to occur during the school day, we would do everything possible to keep people indoors and notify staff, students, and parents of the situation,” Dominguez said. There was no obvious damage to the school besides the “usual cosmetic issues and leaks throughout the buildings that come with heavy rains,” Dominguez said.
Dave Pedroli, who is the Director of maintenance, operations and facilities for the district, said that there was also no major damage to SRHS or other schools buildings, thanks to his team’s checks on roof drains and storm drains to ensure that water had no place to go. In the future, there is no need to worry as well. “None of our campuses are low enough to be bothered by the high tides,” Pedroli said.
The new STEAM and admin buildings at school are also built significantly higher than the parking lot at campus. “Any new building in Marin needs to be built a certain height above what is known as the Mean Higher High Water line,” which the new buildings on campus are built according to. The MHHW line is the average height of the higher of the two high tides each day and has been recorded for over 18 years.
The number is very important because it helps ensure that future buildings are safe from future flooding and king tides. The rain is going to keep coming, and the city and school will continue to adjust their methods for storm preparation as the severity and frequency continue to evolve.
