High winds knocked out phones and 80,000 county customers lost power. Chris Godley, an assistant emergency services coordinator for Sonoma County, says the rate of the river's rise accelerated fourfold in some areas Monday evening, to rise as much as two feet per hour.
Different areas absorb the runoff to varying degrees.
The steep topography of the area of the river's headwaters tends to channel runoff from that area into the river flow more rapidly than downstream, he adds. But it is the rapid development of lands downstream that is compounding the problems, according to Sebastopol hydrologist Eugene Boudreau. This means the flood peaks go way up and occur more often than normal. They don't ever talk about what the cumulative effect is. Only an unexpected break in the series of storm systems moving landward let the waters recede earlier this week after cresting about four feet below flood level late Tuesday.