Businesses began to reopen Saturday under mostly clear skies after many shuttered because of the torrential storm that lashed San Francisco a day earlier.
In parts of the city’s low-lying South of Market district, businesses such as Rainbow Grocery Cooperative had mostly dug out from the deluge after shuttering Friday. In parts of the flood-prone Bayview neighborhood, businesses including Flora Grubb Gardens were drying out in the sunshine after shutting to handle the floodwaters.
“This was all filled with water,” Clarke de Mornay of Flora Grubb Gardens said Saturday, gesturing to the spacious Bayview plant shop’s indoor space, which still showed spots of water on the floor but appeared no worse for wear.
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He said the store closed all day Friday in anticipation of the storm, which produced “more water than I’d ever seen.”
Photos and videos taken by Flora Grubb workers Friday show rivulets of water pouring off the adjoining warehouse roof, forcing employees to dig small ditches to funnel it to overwhelmed drains. The space indoors and outside was under perhaps a half inch of water during the worst of the downpour.
It was the most water he’d ever seen inundate the space, de Mournay said.
That kind of flooding is no surprise, with the area west of Highway 101 in parts of the Bayview lying in the city’s 100-year flood risk area.
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Other areas prone to flood risk were not so lucky.
Not far away near the Highway 101 off-ramp at Cesar Chavez Boulevard, a 15-foot sinkhole opened, blocking lanes of traffic Saturday morning, the California Highway Patrol reported.
An early morning flood reported on Eighth Street between Bryant and Harrison streets appeared to have receded by the early Saturday afternoon.
Nearby Rainbow Grocery on Folsom and 14th streets had closed Friday because of the relentless rain. Reached by phone Saturday morning, an employee named Aria said the store was back open and operating on its normal business hours.
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“It wasn’t as much as last time,” Aria said, adding that the garage and the alleyway near the store flooded. A storm early last year turned the business’ loading dock “into a swimming pool” with some employees losing their cars in the flooding.
The part of town where Rainbow is located also lies in what the San Francisco Planning Department defines as the 100-year storm flood risk zone.
Saturday around noon saw eager shoppers wrapped around the corner waiting to nab a spot in Rainbow’s parking lot. No flooding or damage was visible from the outside.
Around the corner, one garage door was still sporting a few layers of sandbags. Next door to that, Japanese restaurant Rintaro also appeared unscathed. A previous storm had forced the restaurant to close, with employees escaping out a sliding glass window as chest-deep water eventually caused around $100,000 in damage.
On the restaurant’s sloped but dry patio Saturday, an employee skewering eel for service later that evening said Rintaro had sustained no damage and was operating on normal business hours.
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On the other side of town along Marina Boulevard, parts of which were underwater Friday afternoon and evening, signs of the storm had mostly been erased.
Parking was scarce as families took to the promenade under mostly clear skies. Some walked past homes that faced the street, their garage entrances still packed with sandbags and flood barriers as if anticipating another thrashing.
Storm drains had backed up on the road Friday amid the relentless rain, but the area was clear and crowded Saturday.