Historical ood hits city

The second largest ood in Palo Alto’s history impacted hundreds of residents on Dec. 31, leading the city to create new initiatives to combat future ooding.

Near the Pope-Chaucer and Newell bridges spanning Palo Alto and Menlo Park, the San Francisquito Creek over owed, quickly lling the streets of Crescent Park on the morning of New Year’s Eve.

Michael Anderson, the climatologist at the California Department of Water resources, said a signi cant weather pattern change in the atmosphere triggered an unexpected wave of storms over the state.

“A jet stream shot across the entire Paci c, bringing a parade of nine storms into California with atmospheric rivers,” Anderson said. “ e storm right after Christmas was our biggest one.” omas Rind eisch, a retired Senior Research Scientist at Stanford and resident of Crescent Park, said remodeling both bridges is necessary because their designs cause water to build up behind them and over ow.

Felicia Marcus, a member of Stanford’s Urban Water Policy Institute, said the recent ood is an indicator of future weather turbulence.

“We’re going to have weather whiplash (with) more frequent, drier and hotter droughts punctuated by big storms like we just saw,” Marcus said.

To prevent another ood of the magnitude of the city’s largest ood in 1998, which led to $40 million in damages to more than 1500 homes, many residents say the “Upstream Project,” also known as Reach 2, must be completed. e project includes remodeling the Pope-Chaucer and Newell bridges as well as widening parts of the San Francisquito creek. ese residents say the New Year’s Eve ood this year only goes to show how important completing this project is.

Part of this project has the cities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park working with the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Association to rebuild the narrow PopeChaucer and Newell bridges, which many residents think caused the oods in Palo Alto.

“Pope Chaucer is the ultimate thing that has to be xed,” Rind eisch said. “If Reach 2 is completed, then the creek should handle, with out any over ow, 7500 cubic feet per second, which is more than the 1998 ood.”

Palo Alto City Councilman Patrick Burt agrees but said the project needs multi-city cooperation for its success.

“We really needed (the cities) to work together,” Burt said. “We have done a series of simulation drills where all the agencies get together.”

Under the direction of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Association, the “Downstream Project,” more commonly known as Reach 1, was completed in 2019, increasing creek capacity from Highway 101 to the Bay by increasing the height of levees and widening the oodplain near the Bay.

Margaret Bruce, executive director of the SFC JPA, said Reach 1 was crucial in limiting the magnitude of the recent ood.

“East Palo Alto downstream of Highway 101 would have ooded (on Dec. 31),” Bruce said. “If (the channel) had been skinny, water would have backed up even more (upstream) and would have spilled over the banks.”

With the recent ooding fresh in people’s minds, the a ected cities are aiming to speed up processes. East Palo Alto councilman Ruben Abrica, a SFC JPA board member, said he is committed to preventing any future ooding. “ is year in particular, we’re going to put even more emphasis to try to speed up some of these processes,” Abrica said. “It will be done.”

After the San Francisquito creek over owed on Dec. 31, city o cials said communication and sandbag stations became the priority in order to reduce the impacts of the ooding.

Residents familiar with the 1998 ood began preparing days before Dec. 31. Kirsten Essenmacher, a Palo Alto resident since because some of these people had lived here for years,” Essenmacher said.

Burt said the city hopes to improve sandbag stations to increase e ciency and safety before and during oods.

“We had times where we ran out of sand or bags at the sandbagging stations, and our sta is now much more prepared for something like that,” Burt said.

However, Bruce said that some elderly residents still need assistance from able-bodied people, speci cally students, to lay sandbags around their homes.

“Being able to support your neighbors who may not have the physical ability to lift a 50-pound sandbag is huge,” Bruce said.

While oods can be dangerous, one positive outcome during heavy storm periods is that the water supply can increase through the collection of stormwater runo

Rebecca Eisenberg, Palo Alto’s representative on the Santa Clara Valley Board, said the to increasing water supply as it allows rainwater to seep into the ground.

“ e way to capture stormwater is to tear up the concrete on the ground and replace it with porous surfaces,” Eisenberg said.

Marcus agreed and said allowing water to run over a large basin allows for a ood’s force to also be weakened as well.

“Instead of having levees and channeling water to the ocean, taking people out of harm’s way in those areas that the water would normally ow dissipates the force of the water,” Marcus said. “Sacramento would have ooded if it weren’t for (previously-implemented ood prevention) projects in this last rain.”

Bruce said being mindful of the large risk of future ooding at the magnitude witnessed this past month is essential to getting these projects completed.

“We think of this as an extreme event, but it may be followed by other extreme events in close succession,” Bruce said. “What we’re really trying to do is reduce the risk. We can’t eliminate it.”

Teslas equipped with the company’s advanced driver assistance systems, also known as autopilot, were involved in at least 18 fatal crashes since summer of 2021, according to the National Highway Tra c Safety Administration, leading some to doubt the future of self-driving cars.

As recently as December, a Tesla Model S with the brand new Full-Self-Driving system caused an eight car pileup on the Bay Bridge, injuring nine people.

Security footage from the tunnel, released on Jan. 11, shows the selfdriving Tesla attempting a dangerous lane change before slamming on the breaks, causing the pileup.

In recent months, the NHTSA has investigated 35 incidents involving Teslas with FSD, or autopilot, activated. ese incidents have collectively killed 19 people.

Tesla rst developed its autopilot feature in 2016, when its cars came equipped with cameras and sensors, and software updates utilized this hardware to self-drive on freeways. After years of testing and delays, the FSD system became available in November 2022. ese AI features, however, have built up a questionable reputation.

Courtney Mitchell, who has owned a Tesla for ve years, defends Tesla because he said FSD isn’t meant to allow people to not pay attention while driving.

Instead, Mitchell said the negligence of the driver is to blame in most crashes involving FSD.

“When you’re choosing to move into a hands-o -the-wheel mode on the freeway, you need to still pay attention and be ready to grab that wheel instantly,” Mitchell said.

Steve Beck, another Tesla owner in Palo Alto, isn’t so sure.

“I’m not ready to trust full selfdriving,” Beck said. “When it gets to the point that it is demonstrably safe, I would consider it at that point.” e excitement surrounding FSD draws back to a video that Tesla released in 2016, demonstrating the cars’ ability to drive around city streets without a human in the driver’s seat.

A MotorTrend article from January, reporting on car crashes that involve Teslas on autopilot, said it’s possible that Tesla is trying to get FSD on the market before it’s ready.

However, on Jan. 17 Tesla’s director of Autopilot software Ashok Elluswamy testi ed that the promotional video was staged.

An article from Fortune Magazine said Tesla built excitement too early in the development of FSD, which led Tesla to prematurely release a version of it. e car’s shortcomings on the roads gave rise to concerns over a potential threat to drivers and pedestrians, especially in the Bay Area, where there many people own Teslas. e company is based in Fremont.

Palo Alto’s Transportation Planning Manager Sylvia StarLack said there’s not much a city like Palo Alto can do about autonomous vehicles.

“On a sta level, we can’t really do much (about autonomous vehicles),” Lack said. “We talk about it in the o ce, but we don’t have any additional insight into the testing or regulation of those vehicles.”

Using autopilot is a personal choice, however, and there is a community of people who decide not to use it.

Senior Anna Gurthet is a part of this community and said she prefers gas cars. “I like the feel of an engine and the actual driving experience more of a gas car, (and) I personally like driving, so autopilot is useless to me,” Gurthet said.

Regardless of people’s preferences, Beck said he is concerned for the future of Tesla as a company because of some of its recent missteps, including those of its CEO. Beck said, “As a Tesla owner, I want the company to be healthy and still be there if I ever need service.

(Elon Musk) is neglecting what he needs to do.”