All hands on deck to handle storm soaking the Central Coast

Parts of the Central Coast are littered with downed trees and power lines whille streets are under standing water after hours of intense rain and wind.

“We activated our Emergency Operations Center out of precaution,” said Jason Hoppin, Communications Manager, Santa Cruz County.

Inside the center, Santa Cruz County officials, including police and fire, are keeping a close eye on rivers and flood prone areas.

“We also requested two high water rescue vehicles from our partners at Cal OES,” said Hoppin. “We have those here and they’re staffed in case we need it.”

Other agencies also have their work cut out for them trying to keep up and ahead of the storm.

“Tremendously, very busy for us,” said Frank Calderon with PG&E. “We do have a lot of out of town crews.”

PG&E crews could not catch a break. Teams spent hours repairing broken and buried power lines toppled over by rooted and de-rooted trees.

“Be careful, drive slowly when you see crews out there,” said Calderon. “You get a lot of drivers that just speed by and we’re out there trying to restore power and work safely.”

Fire departments and law enforcement said they received many calls about cars spinning out, fire alarms being triggered by rain, wind and power outages, along with other emergency incidents.

“The most preventable one was the cars that were crossing through deep water where they probably shouldn’t have been,” said North County Fire Chief Chris Orman. “If you want to gamble, go to Vegas, not on the road. If you can’t tell where the road is then just stop and go around.”

Emergency officials advise not letting your guard down. They said stay ready and be prepared while there is still unpredictable weather.