Flood — Santa Clara, California

2010-01-20 · near Campbell, Santa Clara, California

Event narrative

As an arrest warrant was being served at a home in Campbell, a man ran into his backyard and hopped over a fence, where a cement drainage ditch was running at full capacity. The man tried to jump over the ditch but got caught in the water and dragged downstream. The Police Officers saw him try to keep his head above water, but he went under and drowned.

Wider weather episode

The third in a series of significant storms brought strong winds and heavy rain to the San Francisco and Monterey Bay areas. This storm, the strongest of the week, developed over the Pacific Ocean with a strong parent low pressure based in the Gulf of Alaska. Around 159,000 customers lost power across the San Francisco Bay area with nearly 22,000 customers without power in the Monterey Bay area. Numerous power lines and trees were knocked down when strong wind combined with saturated soil. Also, areas of flooding occurred causing mainly problems for vehicles.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3084, -121.9642)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 213691. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.