Rainstorm brings downed trees, flooding, power outages, and road closures to SLO County
SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. - Thursday's winter storm dropped several inches of rain and brought gusty winds causing issues throughout San Luis Obispo County.
However, even after enduring what San Luis Obispo County Office of Emergency Services (OES) described was the most significant storm to hit the county since January 2023, it appears most of the impacts seen during the day have not been too serious.
Constant rain has helped a number of local creeks to swell in size significantly, but so far, there hasn't been the catastrophic flooding seen two years ago.
The county has reported only a small handful of road closures due to the storm, with most of those located in the North County, which was soaked with several inches of precipitation.
Several hundred customers have lost power during the rainstorm as well, but as of mid-afternoon, all of the outages were relatively small in size, with the largest affecting up to 500 in Cayucos.
A number of trees were reported down all across the county, including one that blocked the far left lane of Highway 101 on the Cuesta Grade.
Many San Luis Obispo County cities and other unincorporated areas experienced urban street flooding.
At the busy intersection of Highway 1 and Halcyon Road near the border of Arroyo Grande and Oceano, a deep pool of water covered the eastbound land, causing cars to spray up high sheets of water.
Due to severe nature of the rainstorm, San Luis Obispo County decided to activate its Emergency Operations Center for the first time in almost a year.
"The San Luis Obispo County Emergency Operations Center activated at 8 a.m. this morning out of an abundance of caution to help coordinate and provide information to the public related to today's storm," said Anita Konopa, San Luis Obispo County Emergency Services Coordinator. "This is the biggest storm that we have seen this season, and perhaps the biggest one that we've seen since January of 2023, so the county Emergency Operations Center is staffed today with the county Office of Emergency Services staff and other response organizations, including county fire, the Sheriff's Department, and county Public Works just to ensure, that sure if the situation worsens, were available to respond as quickly as possible."
