Although distributing over 11,000 sandbags and preparing to handle the worst weather predictions, a lead engineer reported this week’s storm had “fizzled” in Citrus Heights as of Thursday night, with some staff even being sent home early.
“With all the media noise that began on Sunday about this ‘stormageddon,’ we started the (preparation) process right away,” said Citrus Heights Principle Civil Engineer Stuart Hodgkins in a storm report to the city council, Thursday. “Actually it was more like a fizzle; it was pleasantly quiet today.”
Terry McClammy, who runs an organic community farm in Citrus Heights, also agreed, calling the storm “a dud.”
“The storm did not meet or exceed any of my expectations,” the 57-year-old farmer said Friday, although happy to have the clouds drop some free water on his crops.
While other areas outside the city and around the state struggled with flooding, toppled trees and power outages, Hodgkins credited some part of the minimal storm impact in Citrus Heights to preventative efforts over the past few years like “aggressive” storm drainage cleaning, drainage improvement projects in problem areas, as well as work by Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps members to clean out creeks.
Hodgkins said the City’s preparations began late Monday morning, with residents filling more than 11,000 free sandbags in just over 2 days, going through about 120 cubic yards of sand, according to Hodgkins.
“We had a very good setup and were well organized and ready for this ‘huge’ storm,” said the principle engineer to council members, although volunteers and sand ran a bit short at the City’s two sandbag locations. “We’ve had a lot of rain, but the wind didn’t materialize.”
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Hodgkins said staff “had two trees to address” Thursday, but that crews were left mostly raking leaves away from storm drains throughout the day, while others were sent home.
By 9 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service’s report on the past 24 hours of rainfall showed the storm had dropped 2.64 inches of rain in Sacramento. Some additional showers are expected through tonight.
