Update: Hwy 17 in Santa Cruz Mountains reopens after closure from snow, downed trees and wires
SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS -- Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains reopened Friday afternoon, hours after a combination of downed trees, deep snow and ice during one of the worst winter storms in years closed it.
Shortly after 3 p.m., Caltrans announced the road, a crucial link between the Bay Area and Santa Cruz, had reopened after the road was closed early Friday morning. While all northbound lanes were reopened, only one southbound lane was open to traffic north of Summit Road.
The storm front that ripped through the region with high winds on Tuesday has transitioned over to the next two days to rain, plunging temperatures and snow. Heavier precipitation began Thursday evening, unleashing torrential rains in San Francisco and another round of snow in parts of the North Bay, the East Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains.
ALSO READ: Accident shuts down westbound I-80 again as snow pounds Sierra
For the first time in 12 years, the National Weather Service has issued winter storm warning for a wide swath of the Bay Area.
"Snow showers will continue through this morning along with locally strong and gusty winds that could reduce visibility with blowing snow," the weather service warned. "The snow level will rise to around 2000 to 2500 feet with total snow accumulations of 3 to 7 inches for elevations above 2500 ft."
Flurries fell above 1,500 feet across the region and grew more intense the higher the elevation. The summit of Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains is at 1,800 feet.
Photos: Rare winter storm delivers snow across the Bay Area
Caltrans and CHP confirmed there were multiple vehicles that got trapped overnight when the snow turned heavier and ice made the highway impassable. Multiple trees and power poles came down along Highway 17 during the height of the storm early Friday.
Conditions deteriorated as the day progressed, forcing Santa Cruz County officials to ask residents Friday to cancel all travel plans except in cases of emergency because of the storm was impacting so many major roads around the county.
The county advised people to use libraries or other public facilities to warm up, charge electronic devices and use the internet if their homes are being affected by power outages. A list of branch libraries can be found online.
Authorities also said there was a jack-knifed tractor trailer involved in a collision on southbound Highway 17 at Bear Creek Road in Los Gatos Friday morning, adding to the problems. CHP estimated at least six inches of snow had fallen.
About 14 inches of snow were reported on Mount Hamilton east of San Jose as of 2 p.m. Friday, the highest amount in the region, while 11 inches were reported in the Los Gatos area. In the North Bay, 9 inches fell in Calistoga and 8 inches in Angwin. In San Mateo County, about 6 inches fell in the Portola Valley area and 3 inches fell in the Orinda area of the East Bay.
Weather service meteorologist Brooke Bingaman said the last notable day of snowfall in the Bay Area came in February 2011. That day saw more snow at lower elevations, while Friday's snow accumulated more at higher elevations, she said.
CHP were reporting additional highway closures around the Bay Area. Hazardous weather conditions shut down CA-9 west of Pierce Road in Saratoga, leaving all lanes blocked in both directions.
Heavy snow, downed trees and downed wires on CA-128 have shut down all lanes of that highway in both directions from the Mendocino/Sonoma County line to US-101 in Healdsburg. The roadway reopened in both directions at 3:30 p.m., authorities said, over 13 hours after the initial closure.
CA-152 was also closed in both directions in Monterey County from Mount Madonna to Spring Lake due to downed trees. Eastbound traffic is being diverted onto Mt. Madonna and westbound traffic is being diverted onto Spring Lake.
CHP also reported that downed wires and trees had shut down all lanes of CA-84 between Skyline Boulevard (CA-35) and Skywood Way in San Mateo County in both directions.
Snow was reported falling in a number of areas Friday morning, with measurable snow at Grizzly Peak in Berkeley at 1,800 feet. There were also reports of snow on the Altamont Pass.
Alameda County Fire reported that at 5:30 a.m, an engine was called to Patterson Pass Road -- also known as "Top of the World" -- in Livermore. Over 100 cars that were stopped on the roadway due to the weather conditions and snow required assistance.
Much to the disappointment of parents who wanted to take their children to the top of Mount Diablo to see the snow that fell there, the paved roads at Mount Diablo State Park were closed due to trees across roads and trees on power lines.
However, the Mitchell Canyon and Macedo Ranch day use parking lots were open. Updates to the current closure will be posted here and on the Mount Diablo State Park Facebook page and on the park's website.
While people had been posting photos and videos of snowboarders, skiers and general snow merriment on Mount Tamalpais earlier Friday morning, the Marin County Sheriff announced that Pantol Road and Ridgecrest on Mt. Tam were closed due to snowy conditions as of shortly before 11 a.m.
Authorities report CA-29 from Calistoga north into Lake County was shut down shortly before 8 p.m. Thursday night after reports of drivers spinning out and becoming stranded amid the falling snow. Additional closures followed on Petrified Forest Road, Deer Park Road and other routes.
On Friday morning, Napa County's Office of Emergency Services advised residents living west of Highway 29 and east of the Silverado Trail – the county's mountain areas – to stay home and avoid travel due to weather conditions.
Most of Calistoga was without power Friday morning due to the winter storm that came through the region overnight, city officials said. The areas around Angwin and Circle Oaks were also reporting the outage, with about 4,000 customers in that part of Napa County affected.
PG&E crews are still working to restore power in many parts of the Bay Area, both from outages caused by Thursday's overnight arrival of the most powerful wave of the winter storm and from the high winds that created havoc Tuesday.
ALSO READ: Dayslong power outage wears on East Palo Alto families
As of Friday morning at 8:45 a.m., Pacific Gas & Electric reported a total of 17,426 Bay Area customers without power. The outages were highest in the North Bay with 7,212 households impacted, followed by 4,452 in the South Bay and 3,250 in the East Bay.
The Peninsula, where a majority of the outages were persisting on Thursday, had been reduced to 1,774 customers, while San Francisco only had 738 customers without power. PG&E has an outage center providing information for customers on the utility's website.
BART officials were also reporting delays in the Transbay Tube in both the San Francisco and East Bay directions Friday morning.
The intitial 20-minute delay was due to unscheduled track maintenance, according to BART officials. BART sent out a Service Advisory about the delay at 5:25 a.m., but it was reduced to 10 minutes a short time later.
BART trains are also running at slower speeds due to inclement weather. Riders are asked to plan on adding 10 minutes to their planned travel times due to potential delays.
On Thursday, local residents prepared for Friday's wintry blast.
Longtime Redwood Estates resident Bill Rose woke up to a blanket of snow outside his home Thursday morning.
"It's always pretty, just so quiet with the snow coming down," he said.
"This is the first snow that we've had in the last 5 years, but in year's past we've had even more snow than this time."
And that's why bill says he's prepared for the power outages that come with extreme weather.
"It went out the day before yesterday about 6:30 pm, we're just sitting down to eat dinner and it got dark and we had to go dig out flashlights," he said.
He said the power came on 36 hours later. He used 5 gallons of gas to power his generator to keep his home in order.
While he has power, Rose is working on repairing his fence that blew over earlier this year.
The conditions in the Santa Cruz Mountains have already brought more people to the town store to stock up on supplies
"Ice, beer and firewood too," said Mirian Chi, who runs the Redwood Estates Store.
Redwood Estates Store is the go-to spot in town for all sorts of supplies. It is fully stocked with popular items and essentials, especially when residents are out of power.
Chi said her family has owned this store for 30 years. She sees an uptick in customers when the power goes out for longer stretches of time.
"There's been times when power's out for a couple weeks up here, it happens frequently, so when that happens people don't want to go to town," she said.
"I live up on the other side of the hill, I'm in Lexington hills and we lost power 6 hours, but we have a generator, so we're prepared," said employee Marc Russo.
Longtime resident Mona, who declined to give her last name, said she is experienced in dealing with weather-related power outages.
"We were told it wasn't going to come back until tonight at 10 pm, it came back on last night at 6:30, hallelujah," she said. "We have generators, we have water, we have food. we have supplies."
But she's thinking of other people who might not have access to the same.
"There's a lot of people up here that need the power. My neighbor had to go downtown because she's on medical," she said.
KPIX Reporter Betty Yu contributed to this report
