January 10, 2008

Mother Nature leaves her mark

Winter ‘hurricane’ wreaks havoc

By Carol Rosen
Editor

The storm on Jan. 4 seemed to go after trees particularly.The storm tore limbs from trees throughout Guadalupe Oak Grove Park, leaving the ground covered with leaves, twigs, branches and long limbs. Other areas seeing some damage were the eucalyptus trees on Redmond Avenue just off Meridian by the Almaden Oaks Center with most of the damage cleaned up by press time. Photos by Carol Rosen

It seems every other year, Mother Nature sends a New Year storm to greet the Bay Area and this year proved no different. On Friday, Jan. 4 a huge storm with heavy rain and hurricane force winds visited San Jose resulting in downed power lines, broken trees and damage throughout the area.

Many people were forced to go without power from as little as a couple of hours to nearly three days. Some were out cleaning drainage ditches or calling roofers because of leaks. Some tried to take their dogs out for walks but got drenched and nearly blown away in the process.

Others proved luckier and had few to no problems other than trying to get around in the rain and high winds. In fact, there were a lot of people in Almaden that just hunkered down until the storm ended, building fires to fight off the cold, watching movies or playing board games.

And there were a few who took pleasure in the wild winds and rain walking in it and watching the trees because we’re awfully lucky to live in a place where the typical weather is mild and sunny!