Stay Home in the Rain — Be Courteous if You Must Go, Respect Our Public Servants, and Heads Up: Highway 128 Is Closed for High Water
This news is from Tuesday night, the situation is expected to improve on Wednesday.
Three inches of rain have fallen in the last 24 hours, and Highway 128 is closed from Flynn Creek on due to high water. Highway 1 is open north of Fort Bragg but very dangerous at Mackerricher’s low road. There are wrecks and landslides all over the county as this system keeps pounding us. Stay home. If you absolutely must go out, follow the free graphic tips below from FEMA and Chevrolet. Also, State Route 1 at the Garcia River is closed and the flooding there is worse than usual. We put an update link below. Route 175 out of Hopland is also closed.
We just had to go uptown today from Cleone in the rain — Mike Paoli at Lotten Brake Shop had finished our brakes, thank you Lotten’s and I needed the car for work. I should have had them hold it until morning.
The town was JAMMED with drivers. I had to wait for fourteen cars to pass after I parked on Franklin Street by Lotten, having dropped off Linda to settle our bill. Folks, we all need to stay home when the rain is coming down like this. Today’s storm wasn’t gentle — it was a full‑throated, sideways, tree‑bending Mendocino downpour.
Wait until tomorrow to beachcomb, check out the waterfalls, or even pick up our cars. Here’s that tiny stream — little Davie in Otis Johnson Park — turned full‑blown Goliath by one storm.
Worse, I saw a lot of very bad driving. Some people have only one religion: NEVER slow down, no matter the conditions. I consider that a kind of reckless endangerment — because when they cause wrecks, and they do, the consequences fall on everyone else. Driving fast in the dry is one thing. But you can’t make it to town and back without these jerks menacing your life. Three of them rode my bumper today. I don’t pull over onto flooded shoulders just to appease fools.
The MacKerricher entrance was flooded with eighteen inches of water across the road. Some people hit that water at full speed, one even turning sideways. A CHP officer and a Caltrans worker were out there doing traffic control — soaked, cold, and trying to keep everyone safe — and their lives were put at risk twice by drivers who blasted through the flood and sent a wall of water, then a tidal wave, straight at them.
Don’t drive like a fool. These public servants are out there in the storm for you, and this is how some people treat them.
Then came the cherry on top: some twit in a tiny black compact came barreling down far too fast for any conditions, let alone today’s. I was waiting to turn right and get off the road. I honked and waved for them to slow down. Instead, he — guessing on gender — revved his engine and hit the water full‑tilt, sending another wall of water toward the CHP and Caltrans workers and sliding sideways like it was a joke.
Not funny, dude. Not even close.
That one was much worse, but I didn’t get a photo.
I’m fairly sure that the ass in the black compact car doesn’t read much, but here are some graphics for the rest of us.
Mike’s shop does superb work at Lotten, by the way, and it’s worth the wait and the cost to get your brakes done right. We live in an area where brakes can wear out far faster than the standard 30,000 to 70,000 miles. My rear brake drums had rusted so badly they had to be replaced — that’s the second hazard of living this close to the ocean: salt‑driven rust that eats metal for breakfast.
Rain is predicted to let up tomorrow, and somehow we’ve made it through this round without power outages. Small miracles in a big storm.
And here’s the truth this whole soggy day drove home: Storms don’t make people reckless — they reveal who already was. They also reveal who’s out there protecting the rest of us: the CHP officer standing in a river where a road used to be, the Caltrans worker waving cars through sideways rain, the mechanic who keeps your brakes from failing on a flooded hill, the neighbor who slows down because they understand that survival is a group project.
We saw you all out there today, soaked to the bone and still doing the work. We respect what you do to keep this community safe.
The storm will pass. They always do. But the way we behave in them — that’s the part that sticks.
So slow down. Stay home when the sky opens up. Respect the people risking their lives in the rain so you can get home to yours. And if you absolutely must be out there, drive like you understand you’re not the only one on the road.
Because in weather like this, the difference between a safe day and a tragedy is often just one choice: Don’t be the fool in the black compact.
TRAFFIC ALERT: Route 1 is FULLY CLOSED north of Point Arena from Lighthouse Road to the Garcia River Bridge (PM 17 to 18.5) in Mendocino County due to flooding. Currently, there is no estimated time of reopening.
Please check https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/ or the QuickMap app for the latest road conditions.
TRAFFIC ALERT: Route 175 is FULLY CLOSED in Hopland from the U.S. 101 junction to McDowell St. (PM 0-1.01) due to flooding. Currently, there is no estimated time of reopening.
Please download the QuickMap app or check https://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/ for the latest updates.
