SLO County sees road closures, flooding and fallen trees due to rain storm
A rain storm that swept San Luis Obispo County on Sunday night through Monday morning caused flooding in roadways, fallen tree limbs and at least one car crash.
Some areas had seen nearly six inches of rain as of Monday morning, according to the San Luis Obispo County Public Works Department.
Highway 227 was flooded at Phillips Road near Arroyo Grande, the California Highway Patrol reported. Water covered about 90% of the road as of 8:53 a.m., forcing the agency to divert southbound traffic.
Flooding also affected northbound Highway 101 near Santa Rosa Street in San Luis Obispo, according to the California Highway Patrol. The Toro Street on-ramp was closed by the Highway Patrol as of 8:41 a.m.
A car spun out on Highway 46 east of Paso Robles at about 8:33 a.m. Monday and got stuck in mud in a flooded section of the road, according to the CHP.
There were also multiple reports of fallen tree limbs on roadways across San Luis Obispo County, the CHP said.
Meanwhile, all San Luis Obispo sports fields closed due to the rain, according to the city Parks and Recreation Department.
“The storms have passed but unfortunately, the grounds are too saturated for play today,” the department tweeted Monday afternoon.
The closures are expected to be reevaluated Tuesday.
Nearly 5,000 San Luis Obispo County residents lost electricity on Monday morning as heavy rains and wind pummeled the region, according to PG&E.
By noon, just under 700 customers in SLO County were still without power while crews worked to fix the outages.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning Monday morning for residents of Santa Barbara County in the vicinity of the Alisal Fire burn scar, advising people to move immediately to higher ground.
That warning was lifted before noon, but the evacuation and shelter-in-place orders remained in effect while county officials assessed the area for road stability and overall safety.
Most of San Luis Obispo County was under a flood advisory and a wind advisory through noon Monday, according to the National Weather Service. A high surf warning for the area ended at 9 a.m. Monday.
After the flood advisory was lifted, the Weather Service warned of “residual roadway flooding for the next couple of hours.”
According to PG&E meteorologist John Lindsey, the storm was initially forecast to bring 1 to 3 inches of rain to San Luis Obispo County, with the Santa Lucia mountains above Cambria seeing as much as 4 inches of precipitation.
Lindsey said the strongest winds and heaviest rain were expected to occur between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Monday.
He predicted that the low-pressure system would produce multiple feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada above 8,000 feet.
This story was originally published October 25, 2021 at 10:16 AM.
