SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A powerful storm pummeled Northern California with strong winds and constant downpours overnight Friday into Saturday morning.
While at one point, it seemed that the rain would never stop, it eventually did outside of Phil Stubblefield's house in the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento County. The winds, however, continued to roar throughout the day.
"Things are shaking," Stubblefield said while outside his home during a break from the rain. "Last year we did have water cover the street completely... cover the manhole covers."
Stubblefield doesn't want to repeat an unfortunate year so when things got bad, he knew what to do.
"I had to do a welfare check outside and make sure everything was moving and it wasn't because the drains were all plugged," said Stubblefield with a rake in hand. "So that's what I've been doing here for the past hour-- unplugging drains."
In Ron Marcroft's Howe Park community, neighbors already handled their biggest threat.
"Our neighbor got a tree, a big 100-foot pecan tree, cut down yesterday and the day before," said Marcroft. "People kind of prepared, I think, for this, and that's good."
While some people spent time preparing and making sure their homes were safe before the storm, there were some cases of just pure luck like in one Sacramento neighborhood where a tree toppled in possibly the best way narrowly avoiding a home and power lines inches away.
"The wind was blowing," said Stubblefield. "Whipping stuff all around."
Some Arden area power poles were also whipped around, at one point, leaving almost 3,000 SMUD customers in the dark. Power to most was eventually restored. PG&E also reported outages impacting thousands of other people across Northern California Saturday morning.
"I've lived here my whole life so I’ve seen situations exactly like this," said Marcroft. "And worse.”
Community members like Marcroft are lucky it wasn't worse, and even thankful for the weather that made everyday things look a bit different Saturday.
"It's a beautiful day in the park, there's nobody out here," said Marcroft moments after wrapping up a walk with family. "It's nice to have the rain. We need the rain."
Watch more from ABC10: Weekend Forecast: Heavy rain, snow, & strong winds move through Northern California
