The atmospheric river that rolled through the region over the weekend brought a substantial amount of rain to Oakdale and, in turn, some minor flooding problems. One area that did not flood – a perennial problem area in the past – was along West F Street near Randy Plaza, near the intersection of Bryan and West F.

“We did get a lot of rain and it was great to see that the improvements by Randy Plaza worked out well. However, not surprisingly with between two-and-a-half to three inches of rain we did have some local flooding issues,” noted Oakdale City Manager Bryan Whitemyer. “One of the challenges with this storm was caused by the fact that the leaves on the trees have not fallen yet. It was very windy so there were plenty of leaves in the trees that were blown around and ended up clogging up drain inlets all around town. We had crews out all night unclogging grates and opening manholes.”

The efforts of crews helped alleviate major issues but Whitemyer said there were still areas of concern.

“We did have surface flooding just west of the intersection of Ash and West J Street caused by leaves clogging the drain inlets,” Whitemyer said. “We also had issues at the Wood Avenue basin at Wood Avenue and West H Street. Due to the large amount of rain the basin filled to capacity and actually spilled over onto the road and into the alley.”

Monday morning, explained Whitemyer, city crews pumped the water out and found that the pipe that was supposed to divert the water from the basin was clogged.

“The pipe was unclogged so the basin should handle future rain events much better,” Whitemyer added. “All in all we fared much better than some of our neighbors to the north.”