LocalLocal newsnews at your at your ngertips everyevery weekweek fingertips $1.00 JustJust $1!.00!
Greyounds sports Greyounds sports section teaser section teaser Sports,Sports, Page XPage X
at the newsstand at the newsstand
$1 at$1the at newsstand the newsstand
TheHealdsburg HealdsburgTribune Tribune The Enterprise & Scimitar Enterprise & Scimitar
Visit for daily updates on local news views www.healdsburgtribune.com for daily updates on local news andand views Our 159th year,Visit Number 48 www.healdsburgtribune.com Healdsburg, California
Our 155th year, Number 00© ur 155th year, Number 00©
OPEN MIC: WILDFIRE ROULETTE IN WINDSOR
November 28, 2024
Healdsburg, California Healdsburg, California
Date, Date, 20202020
KOI CASINO IS RISKY BUSINESS FOR WILDLIFE, NEIGHBORS By Nina Cote
➝ Wildfire Roulette, 2
Photo by Scott Mann / City of Healdsburg
Sonoma County residents are accustomed to the risks that wildfires pose. Earlier this year, we experienced a wildfire that prompted emergency responders to contain it swiftly. That forced residents into the all-too-familiar position of standing by for a potential evacuation order. This recent incident underscores why it is so imperative that proposed de vel op m en t p roj ec ts anticipate strained evacuation routes before bringing more congestion to our roads. The Koi Nation’s proposal to construct the Shiloh Resort and Casino ignores this responsibility. The casino would sit on a major evacuation route outside the town of Windsor, which is susceptible to fast-moving wildfires. When a wildfire occurs, an evacuation warning could quickly turn into a mandatory evacuation order if the winds shift. Downplaying these risks without thorough analysis jeopardizes emergency response efforts and endangers 26,000 Windsor residents. Supporters of the Koi Nation’s project say the casino will bring economic benefits to the community. However, this project should not come at the expense of the people who call Sonoma County home. Our elected leaders agree. Windsor officials oppose the casino, telling the Bureau of Indian Affairs that it may take longer for residents to evacuate the area if the casino is developed and a wildfire occurs. Wildfires move at an unpredictable pace, and the additional time it takes for residents to evacuate is a matter of life and death.
LOST TRAIL An autumn rainstorm overflowed in the downtown area, inundating the Foss Creek Path and discouraging a walk in the rain.
Historic Rainstorm Soaks Healdsburg FOSS CREEK WATERS SURGE OVER STREETS, INTO HOME By Simone Wilson
What happens when a bomb cyclone collides with an atmospheric river off the Pacific coast? For four long, wet days in Healdsburg last week it meant historic rainfall totals and quickly rising Russian River and Foss Creek waters that hopped their banks, flooded streets, caused road closures, led to a small mudslide on Fitch Mountain and flooded at least one home in town. “It almost felt like a tide was coming in,” said Mercedes Clark, a 27-year-old renter whose Healdsburg home quickly filled with Foss Creek waters. “The way it came was so fast.” The storm arrived in the wee hours Wednesday. By Saturday, Healdsburg and its rural outskirts had received 16 to 22 inches of rain, according to our
Larkspur Drive from Grant Street to Marigold Way; Allan Court and Moore Lane behind City Hall; and parts of Parkland Farms. Residents who needed to get through could be seen wading through the blockaded streets, water up to their calves. Clark and her partner— who live one block south of Powell Avenue, between Healdsburg Avenue and Foss Creek—said the entire ground floor of their twostory home filled with around three feet of water in a matter of hours Thursday. It happened so quickly that they didn’t have time to save all their furniture and appliances from the rising waters—along with Clark’s family photos and the journals her mother kept while dying from cancer. Clark said that nothing like this has happened in the four years she’s lived there, and that her landlord never mentioned the property was flood-prone. Amid the chaos Thursday, she managed to save her car from the driveway,
local office of the National Weather Service (NWS)— much more than originally predicted. The deluge shattered multiple daily rainfall records at the Sonoma County Airport south of town, the office reported, and delivered more than half of the area’s average yearly rainfall in a matter of days. After the first 24 hours of relentless rain and wind, Healdsburg’s lowest-lying s tree ts and pathways began to flood. Particularly impacted were those in proximity to Foss Creek— which overflowed Thursday and quickly inundated the surrounding area. “We literally had so many ducks in our backyard,” said Clark, whose home flooded. “It turned into a full-blown pond. It was wild.”
Road Closures
Throughout the day, city officials closed Grove Street from Foss Creek Circle to North Street; North from Grove to the freeway;
WRESTLING GYM TO BE RECHRISTENED FOR DREW ESQUIVEL Photo from Healdsburg Tribune archives
SENIOR YEAR Drew Esquivel when it was announced that he was selected for the James Scholarship, from a local family foundation. The remodeled Frost Gym will soon be renamed for him, the first student to be so honored.
SCHOOL DISTRICT TO NAME REMODELED FROST GYM FOR INSPIRATIONAL STUDENT LEADER By Christian Kallen
In what Superintendent Chris Vanden Heuvel openly said was a first, the Healdsburg Unified District School Board’s trustees voted to give a newly remodeled gym a new name: Drew Esquivel Hall, in honor of a 2013 graduate
where waters were also rising. “But when it comes to all of my photos,” Clark said, “there’s no getting any of that back.” C o m e e a r l y Fr i d ay morning, across town, a soggy chunk of Fitch Mountain broke loose and slid down into the road, threatening a home and trapping a parked car along Madrone Avenue, according to the county’s Permit Sonoma. A spokesperson for the agency said crews were monitoring the mudslide closely to make sure it didn’t reach any homes downhill.
Rising Waters
Meanwhile, at the base of the mountain, the Russian River rose rapidly throughout the storm. By Friday afternoon, it had surged past flood level at Digger’s Bend, one of two spots where officials measure it in Healdsburg— peaking around 3pm at just over 30 feet. And at the other measuring spot downstream near Badger Park, the
who was killed by a drunk driver while he was away at college in 2016. “It is not a normal thing for us to consider naming a school building after a student, or a room,” Vanden Heuvel told the board on Wednesday night, Nov. 20. “In fact, I’ve been in education for 28 years, this year. I’ve never seen it done. “But Drew Esquivel was not a normal kid.” That was the essence of the message that Vanden Heuvel and wrestling coach Scott Weidemier both delivered to the board, while Drew’s parents Susanne and Andy Esquivel sat in the audience. They spoke in support of a proclamation to rename Frost Hall—which bears the name of a longago school board member—as Drew Esquivel Hall, to be dedicated early next year. The Superintendent, who was principal at
3pm peak was 20 feet, just shy of the official danger zone. Healdsburg resident Tessa Kraft posted photos to Facebook that afternoon showing the river swallow a bench at Riverside Park within a couple of hours. “The benches disappeared!” she wrote. “The Russian River is rising fast!” Also on Friday, at least two drivers had to be rescued from their waterlogged cars on Slusser Road south of Healdsburg—near where a woman from Ukiah died in another storm two years ago, after getting trapped in her car on TrentonHealdsburg Road. To the west in Guerneville, the Sonoma County Sheriff ’s Office reported finding a man dead in his submerged vehicle near Hwy 116 on Saturday. A second death was reported that same day in Santa Rosa, where police say they found a man dead in the receding floodwaters of Piner Creek. ➝ Waters Surge, 7
He a l d s b u r g Hi g h f o r three years while Esquivel was a student, was first to speak—in fact it was he who suggested to the school board that they consider renaming the gym. Vanden Heuvel ticked off Esquivel’s accomplishments and academic standing (though the former principal thought it was Esquivel’s competitive streak that drove his academic success), and while Esquivel was known as a competitive football player, wrestler and “super smart kid,” Vanden Heuvel said he was most impressed by a more powerful aspect of Esquivel’s character. “What really stands out the most was that Drew was one of those people who makes everyone better when he’s around,” he said. “He looked out for others. Or he might just influence them with his joy and positivity … ➝ Drew Esquivel, 4