Mr. Mayor, Madam City Administrator, and City Council Members,

Unusually wet springtime weather continues in the Bay Area.  In the last five days, 2.38 inches of rain fell in Oakland, pushing the city to 131% percent of normal precipitation for the period July 1, 2005, through April 4, 2006.   With a year-to-date cumulative total of 27.66”, we are already close to the season total of 28” of rainfall during last year’s (04-05) winter season, which was already 10” more than the previous (03-04) winter season.  To further underscore the extraordinary nature of our weather this year, Oakland received 9.94” of rainfall in March; while Seattle received just 1.63” during the same period.

Saturated soil continues to cause instability, resulting in 15 mild mudslides and 6 tree failures during these past five days.  This year we've responded to approximately 39 landslides, with 17 of those resulting in landslide repair projects.  Of these 17 slide repair projects, 9 are currently classified as FEMA reimbursable, and 3 are FHWA eligible for reimbursement, leaving 5 as non-reimbursable slide repair projects.  If rains continue as predicted, we expect more landslides to occur, since the soil on our slopes is saturated.  These potential additional slide repair projects would not be reimbursable, since they would be occurring outside the state & federal disaster declaration period which ended January 3rd, 2006.

Call volume was light with 58 weather-related calls received over the five-day period, in large part due to our crews’ proactive approach pre-storming and storm response.

Forecasters predict dissipating showers over the next two days, with more storm fronts coming in the remainder of this week and next week.

With continued rains, crews continue to inspect and clean inlets and storm drains in heavily affected areas; and to patrol and monitor the Lake Merritt area and hills for any drainage-related issues in order to mitigate them before they become problems.

Percent of normal follows the July 1 through April 4 amounts.

Location of Problem Areas

• Elverton Drive between Skyline and Thorndale remain closed to all traffic because of further erosion of the street due to recent storms.  Continuing erosion caused a sewer line to break (approximately 6 feet of the road caved in.)
  Closure of the road to all traffic does not affect citizens’ ingress/egress to their private property.  PWA Engineering staff has evaluated the situation and is working on a permanent repair.
• 105th Street Underpass on San Leandro Street remains closed due to mechanical problems with the pumping system.  Drainage and Facilities staff are addressing the problems.

Number of Calls Received (See attachment)

• 58 - Total calls received
• 6 - Tree related calls
• 15 - Mudslide related calls
• 37 - Sewer and storm drain related calls

Facility-related service requests:

• Fire Station #6 - Roof leak over the kitchen - Repairing
• Mosswood Kitchen - Roof Leak - Repairing
• San Antonio Park - Broken storm drain - Repairing
• Fire Station 20 - Hallway roof leak - Repairing
• Live Oak Pool Men’s Shower - Leak in wall - Repairing
• Fire Station 28 - Leak in dorm area - Repairing
• Moss Home - roof leak - Repairing
• MSC - Bldg 4 - roof leak - Repairing      

Media Inquiries & Coverage:

• Channel 5 (Sherri Hu) and Channel 7 (Willie Monroe) both were covering our crews today; Channel 5 will run their story at 6:00pm & 11:00pm.

 Additionally, the following links are to recent local newspaper coverage of the impacts of the storms on our communities:

• http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/community/14240097.htm
• http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/14267597.htm
• http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_3674476
   

As always, our crews are engaged in pre-storming activities as we continue to experience rainy weather.  I will keep you informed on any new developments.