San Jose

San Jose residents fare with Bay Area storm

NBC Universal, Inc.

The atmospheric river made its way to the South Bay on Friday, leaving many with power outages and impacting holiday events.

The weather played a role in the power outages along the 1900 block of The Alameda in san Jose, leaving residents like Kyle Bierro in the dark.

"We just got home from work [then] all of sudden the lights went out," Bierro said.

The power isn't expected to be reported to the area until Saturday morning.

Serpately, Christmas in the Park drive-thru did not see many drivers and Enchant Christmas at PayPal Park saw fewer guest.

"I mean, people are always going to look to the weather and see if theyโ€™ll come out or not," said Brian Davis, an event organizer.

Ahead of the storm, San Jose workers have spent the past few days preparing infrastructure.

City crews have spent days cleaning out storm drains in hopes of preventing problems before they begin. As the storm starts hitting the area on Friday, crews will remain on storm patrol.

After clearing drains, crews marked the spots arrows in the direction where the drain pipe flows underground to help night crews.

"All hands on deck type of stuff. We cruise the city, go by a lot of schools, and try to make sure they're all clear and that stuff doesn't flood around them," said Damon Ovalle, a San Jose city worker.

Residents have also been doing their part to help city workers.

The previously problematic Coyote Creek, which flooded in 2017, does not appear to be at risk of overflowing.

However, if it does overflow, a retaining wall that Valley Water has constructed along the creek's banks should provide extra protection.

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