Sinkhole Opens Up In Santa Rosa Area Burned By Wildfire
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) -- Heavy rain overnight caused a small sinkhole to open up Thursday morning in the Fountaingrove area of Santa Rosa, city officials said.
Dafford Place is one of 31 areas identified in Fountaingrove that have sections of underground storm drain pipe that were burned in the Tubbs Fire last month.
Wednesday night's storm only dropped a couple of inches of rain, but it is a harbinger of what may come this winter.
The compromised storm drain travels under Dafford Place, and city work crews temporarily closed the street to mitigate further issues, city officials said.
"This storm was just a drop in the bucket weather wise," said Santa Rosa Fire Department assistant fire marshal Paul Lowenthal.
He said water migrated downhill to an area where storm drains were compromised, causing erosion concerns.
Dafford Court is closed while emergency contractors tear out the road and replace the drainpipe underneath. It is just one of several projects they're working on.
The city of Santa Rosa surveyed 28 miles of drainage pipe this week and uncovered half a dozen more compromised spots, making for 30 sites that the city now has to fix before storms roll in again.
"That ranges everything form a 250 foot section of pipe that completely burned away to just damaged outfalls," Lowenthal said.
There's no estimate yet on how much it'll cost to fix or replace these pipes, or when it'll be done.
But one thing is for certain: time is of the essence.
There were no other major issues caused by the rain overnight, according to the city.
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