Flood Fiasco: Residents Reflect on This Year’s Storms
![RAIN RIVER — Palo Alto resident Nana Chancellor said she watched the water rise in the San Francisquito Creek on New Year’s Eve. “The speed at which [the water] rose and came down the street was really shocking,” Chancellor said. Photo: Nadia Soberg](https://verdemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Screenshot-2023-03-21-164855-900x323.png)
RAIN RIVER — Palo Alto resident Nana Chancellor said she watched the water rise in the San Francisquito Creek on New Year’s Eve. “The speed at which [the water] rose and came down the street was really shocking,” Chancellor said. Photo: Nadia Soberg
When Palo Alto High School parent Nana Chancellor left her house on New Year’s Eve, it was raining without any signs of a flood; however, when she returned only about 15 minutes later, her street had flooded. Police with loudspeakers were lining the street, directing people not to drive down it.
“There was literally a wave coming down from people driving to try to get cars to the street,” Chancellor said. “So I took off and rolled up my pants and just walked home. … The whole block was muddy.”
The beginning of this year brought record-breaking storms throughout Palo Alto and the Bay Area where residents saw power outages, flood warnings and powerful winds exceeding 50 miles per hour. Flooding and fallen trees prompted various road closures, particularly roads with underpasses such as El Camino Real.
According to AP Environmental Science teacher Nicole Loomis, this kind of extreme weather event may become more common due to climate change.
Loomis said that this year’s floods were in part caused by a specific weather pattern that may become more common during years of heavy rainfall.
“What they’re seeing, at least on the East Coast, is you might be getting the same amount of precipitation in a year but instead of it raining every other day for a small amount, you’re getting two or three rain events a month with massive amounts,” Loomis said.
In Palo Alto, this rainfall has particularly impacted Crescent Park due to its proximity to the San Francisquito Creek. Nana Chancellor and her husband Brian Chancellor currently live in Crescent Park.
“I grew up in Palo Alto, and it’s the first time I’ve actually experienced the flood,” Brian Chancellor said. “It was the sort of thing where it just felt like once it started flooding, it came pretty fast.”
Brian Chancellor said he remembers seeing debris floating through the creek as it flooded.
“I’ve heard that there were two refrigerators that ultimately got removed,” he said. “There was plenty of manmade debris … plastic bottles, things like that, but there was a lot of organic stuff that came down the creek also.”
Fellow Crescent Park resident Elizabeth Lee said she witnessed a similar scene.
“The creek rose especially high, especially fast,” Lee said. “I just remember standing by it for a while and seeing lots of logs floating by and there was a pile of rubble, of logs. … It was really something looking out and seeing the water just right up level with, almost level with the top of the berms.”
Lee met Palo Alto Mayor Pat Burt in the midst of the flood.
“I waded through some of [the flood water] and I ended up meeting who was then the mayor of Palo Alto, Pat Burt, standing in front of our house along with another city councilman,” Lee said. “So I chatted with him and he said ‘I’m the mayor,’ and I said ‘Oh, hi!’ and the councilman said ‘Yeah, looks like that house got especially bad’ and he pointed to our house.”