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How the City Prepared for December Storm and King Tides

While Alameda didn’t get the blaring tornado warning that San Francisco received this past weekend, we did experience flooding due to the storm and king tides. King tides are exceptionally high tides that occur when the Earth, moon, and sun align in a specific way. Here’s what the City did to prepare and the damage that was caused by the storm.

An Amazon truck in deep water - Alameda Post
An Amazon truck in a flooded parking lot. Photo Cindy Warner.

Communications and Legislative Affairs Officer Sarah Henry told the Alameda Post that City staff prepared for this weekend’s storm by lowering the lagoons, clearing storm inlets, checking storm pump stations and backup generators, supplying the self-serve sandbag station, and removing leaves and debris from streets.

“During the storm, maintenance staff cleared clogged storm lines, monitored pumping facilities, cleared debris and down trees, placed signage in areas that were flooding including at Veterans Court, along Shoreline, and at Alameda Point, and closed portions of the shoreline trail on Bay Farm Island,” said Henry.



Additionally, “the City shared information on social media about using caution during the storm,” Henry added.

As a result of the storm, several trees fell due to high winds, including one that caused a power outage on the West End.

“The West End Branch Library could not open because of the outage but reopened when power was restored that afternoon,” said Henry.

Those braving the coast this past weekend might have noticed the king tides in action. The elevated water levels offer a glimpse of the challenges Alamedans may encounter in the future as a result of rising sea levels.

The Oakland Alameda Adaptation Committee (OAAC) is a coalition of shoreline communities and stakeholders working to accelerate sea level rise adaptation, protect and restore water quality, habitat and recreation and promote community resilience. They recently held two community workshops that focused on sea level rise.

“High tides are already getting higher, groundwater is rising, and rainfall intensity is increasing,” read one slide from the Bay Farm Island Community Engagement Workshop. “Low-lying coastal areas built on fill are at the greatest risk.”

Read more about the workshops and the local effects of sea level rise here.

Kelsey Goeres is the Managing Editor of the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Kelsey-Goeres.

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