Some Bay Area residents have already fled their homes ahead of what’s being called "the wettest storm of the season."
The storm is moving in on the Bay Area Tuesday and meteorologists are predicting several inches of rain over the entire region, with the biggest impact in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The National Weather Service is warning the storm could bring flash floods and heavy winds, with the brunt of the storm expected in areas where the ground was already disturbed by recent wildfires.
Some light showers could start in the North Bay on Tuesday afternoon.
"But the heart of the real intense rainfall will be this evening for the North Bay, around midnight for San Francisco, and as we get down into the Santa Cruz and the Monterey region we’re looking at early (Wednesday) morning," said Matt Mehle with the National Weather Service.
Thousands of people in the Santa Cruz Mountains have already been told to evacuate before the storm hits, and an evacuation warning has gone out to residents in southern San Mateo County near the burn scar left by the CZU Lightning Complex Fire.
For most people in these areas, it is their second widescale evacuation in less than a year.
"We definitely wanted to get out early," said Monty Kurek, who evacuated from Boulder Creek along with his wife and two dogs on Monday. They piled into an RV and made their way to one of the evacuation centers at San Lorenzo Valley High School.
"There’s not a lot of ways out, so the traffic is going to be horrendous. Probably the closer it gets to the time the storm’s coming in, the worse it’s going to get. We figured we’d get a jump on it and get out."
He and his family will not be able to stay at the center overnight because of the pandemic. But county and Red Cross officials are available at the centers to help evacuees find a socially distanced place to stay.
The evacuation centers are the high school, the Scotts Valley Community Center and Pacific Elementary School.
"We have a place on the San Joaquin River that we’re gonna go, and we’re gonna spend two or three nights there just seeing how it goes," said Kurek. "We’re not in the direct possibility of having the flow come to us, but getting trapped because some of the bridges could be wiped out. It could be - who knows, if it’s really bad it could be weeks."
Kurek speaks from experience, having evacuated when the CZU fire swept through the area last summer.
"It’s different now because of the fires…it’s awful, driving through it. Especially up by the golf course area up Jamison Creek. When you go up to empire grade and you drive down, you can’t believe how close it actually came to Santa Cruz."
Firefighters were able to save his home, along with the rest of Boulder Creek, and he has faith that the county’s early evacuations will save lives if the rains trigger floods or mudslides.
But it's still disturbing to leave his home for the second time in months.
"It’s like, are you kidding me? Again? What did we do wrong? Who did we piss off?" he joked. "I guess it’s the good the bad and the ugly of where we live. You know, we get a lot of beautiful. And sometimes we’re gonna have to - I guess we pay a price."
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