The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Stormy Weather: A woman who declined to give her name took shelter under an umbrella above the rain-streaked Guadalupe Parkway last week.

Streets flood, and river rushes, but Glen escapes worst of storm

Detours abound as storm drains clog along Minnesota

By Rebecca Wallace

As El Niño vented its wrath upon other areas of the Bay Area with house-crushing rivers of mud and frightening floods, it appeared to be only vaguely annoyed with Willow Glen.

In comparison to other areas, Willow Glen was fortunate. But residents did suffer some damage. At least one business in the area, the Creekside Inn, was closed, a few trees toppled and roofs leaked, and shopping was severely stunted on Lincoln Avenue.

The streets of Willow Glen were hit hardest by the storm. Clogged and overflowing storm drains filled many intersections with water, including the heavily traveled corner of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues.

"It's sort of a fluid situation, if you'll pardon the pun," joked San Jose Police Sgt. Chris Moore during the heavy rain on Feb. 6, referring to the fact that the storm situation was changing by the minute.

Avenue merchants reported the rain kept many shoppers away. "We have probably had the slowest day in our history," said Julie Painchaud, owner of Our Secret on Lincoln Avenue. "I can look outside and say I wouldn't want to be out there today."

At Booksin Elementary School, rain seeped into a classroom on Feb. 2. But the leaky roof gave the kids a chance to see a realistic science project, said Stephanie Presker, who runs Booksin's science room.

"The fourth-graders have worked for two months to turn the room into a rain forest, creating trees and animals," she said. "And it's actually raining in here right now--we're having a little roof problem."

During the first spate of storms on Feb. 2 and 3, the Guadalupe Parkway area suffered the most damage as the nearby Guadalupe River spilled over onto the road. Motorists hoping to take Willow Street under Route 87 into or out of the Glen had to find detours, as a pool of water remained in the road well into Wednesday.

One of the worst-flooded spots in that area was the Elks Lodge parking lot on W. Alma Avenue at Guadalupe Parkway, said Michelle McGurk, aide to District 6 City Councilmember Frank Fiscalini.

The Creekside Inn on Alma near Willow Glen had to close Feb. 3 as workers pumped out about 250 gallons of water, said owner Nick Papadopoulos. This was an unpleasant reminder of the 1995 rainy season, when the inn was flooded twice. "This flooding happened at about 3 a.m. Monday night," he said. "I came in in the morning and said, 'My God, here we go again!' "

The other waterway in Willow Glen, Los Gatos Creek, has already hit its peak and is receding quickly, said Mike Di Marco, spokesman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

Trees fell on Iris Court and at Willow Glen Elementary School on Feb. 6. But San Jose Unified School District spokesperson Maureen Munroe said no district schools were closed by flooding.

As the week progressed, water collected on Lincoln Avenue. Part of the intersection of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues was blocked off on Feb. 6 and continued to be a trouble spot throughout the weekend of Feb. 7-8.

Several streets were flooded, including Hillsdale Avenue at Capitol Expressway and the outside lanes of Leigh Avenue between Foxworthy and Curtner avenues.

Over the weekend, many intersections along Minnesota Avenue--including Hicks, Cherry and Bird avenues--got swamped, resulting in many detours and quite a few cars being abandoned with flooded engines, said San Jose Fire Capt. John Castro.

"You have to go slow, or your engine could be overwhelmed with copious amounts of water," Castro reminded drivers.

Bill Reid, owner of Cupertino Kitchen Designs at Lincoln and Minnesota, said the intersection was so inundated with water that every driver speeding by caused waves to splash up against the front of his sandbagged building."Customers had to come in through the back door," he said.

No major power outages were reported during last week's storms, said Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman Scott Blakey. Moore said he knew of no Glen residents who have been flooded out of their homes.

Flood Control

The community-wide effort to prepare for El Niño had been extensive, said water district spokesman Mike Di Marco.

"We had at least six community meetings throughout the county [with representatives from] public works directors, police and fire officials, the Red Cross and the power and electric companies," he said. Groups discussed disaster plans, evacuation routes and sandbags.

The district has eight sites throughout the county where people can pick up sandbags and brochures explaining how to use them. The Willow Glen site is in a vacant lot next to 445 Willow St.

Although the district saw its supplies of sandbags falling last week, it still has plenty of sand and has ordered an ample quantity of new bags, Di Marco said. To receive mailed information about flood preparedness, call the district at 1-888-439-6624.

Creekside Inn owner Papadopoulos said he thought area flood damage could have been minimized if more prevention work had been done earlier. "I've been in this city for 30 years. ... Before, there were orchards to absorb the water, but now the creek can't go into concrete," he said. "We're supposed to be able to prevent things like this."

Di Marco said the district has been planning two major flood-control projects in the Guadalupe River area. One, the $140 million Downtown Guadalupe River project, is set to be completed next year, he said.

For this project, the district built a bypass channel along the western bank of the river, which serves as a park in the summer and fills up with water in the winter.

The second piece of the flood-control plan is the $141 million Upper Guadalupe River project, which water district officials say will prevent the destruction of land and homes along the river in Willow Glen, including areas of Willow Glen Way and Lincoln Avenue.

This project will run between the Southern Pacific Railroad and Blossom Hill Road, forming embankments, building bridges and using bypass channels. It requires the demolition of 88 houses; 64 have already been purchased by the water district.

An engineering report is being prepared, and fundraising is still being done in preparation for the upper river project. Both of the projects affect Willow Glen because neither will work by itself.

Di Marco said the flooding around Route 87 has not been unexpected: "We know that when the water district finishes the projects, this problem will go away."

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