SF Bay Area folks: Poll -- Hellastorm, Ove

Where I'm at, it's already pretty strong and the strongest part hasn't even reached us yet (according to Doppler). I don't think it's been overhyped at all because even if the storm itself isn't completely insane, the effects of the storm are what people need to be prepared for. - Hookuh Tinypants

It's a good point. And the widespread power outage in SF alone is significant. But where I am in south bay, it's nothing so far. I appreciated how empty the roads were when dropping off my kids at school -- quick commute this morning. But last night was horrible. - Stephen Mack

South 280 is flooded. That's pretty bad. - Rodfather

I thought there was a bit too much hype leading up to it, but the power outages in SF are pretty bad. Here, in Alameda, it seems to be hitting us in bands, some not bad, others very heavy. The winds here seem to have backed off, ATM, but we have steady rain. - vicster.

And, really, if the hype got people to think about getting their emergency supplies stocked and fresh batteries in their lanterns and such, that's a good thing. - vicster.

North Bay is basically getting bent over a car hood and screwed without any lube right now. I don't think they'd appreciate anyone insinuating that this storm was in anyway overhyped. Maybe it didn't hit every single part of the Bay Area equally but it's hitting hard no matter what. - Hookuh Tinypants

Yeah, if nothing else, it's nice that folks are thinking about emergency supplies right now! It's surprising how many people in California don't have any sort of emergency anything. It's like they forget that one strong earthquake can seriously screw us. - Hookuh Tinypants

My cousin who lives in Berkeley just discovered that her basement is flooded. Yeah, not overhyped. - Hookuh Tinypants

There's been flood warnings in Alameda County. Creeks in Berkeley are rushing, but otherwise just wet. - kendrak

It stalled in the north bay, seems to be coming through to the south now. - Todd Hoff

It's supposed to hit Reno from the south, at around 2 or 3 this afternoon. I'm a little baffled about the wind pattern - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

Raining in downtown Sacramento ATM - not seeing or hearing high winds here. - Corinne L

WAY too early to say, esp. since we're well to the east & south (Livermore). Currently sheet rain, as heavy as it ever gets, warm this a.m. As vicster sez, winds have backed off for the moment. So far, no, not clearly overhyped.[Our downspouts look like somebody's got a firehose at the top...] - walt crawford

Montgomery Station downtown is apparently closed due to flooding... - Andrew C (✔)

minor wind damage in my neighborhood. my neighbor always cleans out the gutter & drains down on the corner before a storm. he's wonderful. lots of blocks in our neighborhood flood because of trash & plant debris in the storm drains. and I'm glad the schools closed. even one kid hurt in a weather-related accident is too many. - Starmama

Wind is insane here. Comcast is out. No rain yet. Not overhyped. - Mary Carmen

Here comes the rain. - Mary Carmen

South Bay had 20mph winds and a couple inches of rain so far, heavy at times. Seems to be easing off now. - Stephen Mack

We've got horizontal rain. - Todd Hoff

I just sat in on a conference call where all the guys in attendance were talking about how weak the storm was and how wimpy everyone was for being cautious. (mind you, they all live in/around San Ramon, with 5 minute commutes) I had to school them with some of the updates I've seen from FFers and FBers experiencing the strong shit. - Hookuh Tinypants

This is a very "bandy" storm--one look at the radar shows that. It's huge, but the sheet/horizontal/flood rain is in small bands. If you miss the bands, it doesn't seem terrible. And, as usual, the North Bay gets the worst of it. If anyone says "eh, weak, no issue," tell them they've been lucky and should maybe STFU. - walt crawford

Oog. Sez I, just looking at the Wundermap (Wunderground) and seeing one big wide yellow (heavy/severe) band just to the west of us and moving southeast. - walt crawford

I'm glad it's coming at us from Hawaii and not Alaska. Temperature's pretty comfy, considering. - Starmama

The only bad thing about that is that you get less snow, and what we need is snow. So far, no sign of snow. (The paper seemed to say this was an arctic storm, but the temp. sure doesn't suggest that.) - walt crawford

Walt, there is supposed to be snow south of Tahoe, high up. The jet stream will largely avoid the ski areas around Tahoe (and therefore, won't be Tahoe basin drinking water in the spring) but I had heard up to 2 feet at Tahoe ski runs. I can't imagine what's hitting further south!! - RudĩϐЯaЯïan

It's definitely overhyped, by people lacking experience with rain. I'm used to seeing this kind of torrential downpour a minimum of 4-5 times a year, often with higher winds. And it's not even an area that suffers from hurricanes which are legitimate things to fear. - OCoG of FF, Jimminy

I'll cross fingers. Two feet is a lot better than nothing (the Chronicle was saying 3 feet this morning, but that may be even higher). - walt crawford

Here's some heavy streaming on Google campus. No disaster, but impressive. https://www.youtube.com/watch... - Louis Gray

That was cool Louis :-) - Starmama

Our campus (Sonoma State) was closed yesterday, which is kind of screwing with finals. There's some pretty significant flooding. It's A LOT OF RAIN. And not good because the dryness of the past few years has made the top soil pretty loose, which makes flooding worse. Our power was out yesterday for about 6 hours. - Laura Krier

The thing is, if you live an area that regularly gets this kind of weather you have the infrastructure for it and the effects aren't that bad. If you don't, well... - Laura Krier

I think that's the most important point, Laura. In the same way Californians are surprised when other regions are devastated by earthquakes that seem mild to us, we suffer during heavy rain. To quote a blog post on SFGate, "Our infrastructure– many aboveground power lines, roads that turn into sinkholes, insufficient storm drains– is less equipped to handle big storms than in many other places." - Stephen Mack

Laura speaks the truest words. The most frustrating thing about yesterday was having to listen to people strut around all like "Oh these people clearly don't know what weather is! Where *I* come from it's ten times worse!" or the people who were in the parts of the Bay Area that weren't hit by the strongest portions of the storm (or didn't have it stall out right over their region) talking about how weak and overhyped it was. It's like people completely lack the ability to accept that their exact life isn't what everyone else is experiencing. - Hookuh Tinypants

People around Northern California lost their homes. That ain't no joke. - Starmama

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