STOCKTON, Calif. — With gray clouds already forming above, midtown Stockton resident Adam Adams was busy preparing Friday.
“Cleaning up the leaves, getting ready for the rain, making it look good," said Adams while holding a leaf blower. "It’s neighborhood taking care of neighborhood.”
But today was the easy day for Adams.
“Yesterday, I was on the roof, cleaning my gutters out because the leaves build up," said Adams. "I love trees but when you have big oak trees around here, summer time they’re good but fall time they drop leaves."
It was a somewhat easy day for Joe too, making sure his neighborhood near the Miracle Mile is safe for residents and drivers.
"We’ve got a lot of weird trees here that drop a lot of stuff and when it gets squished by tires, cars come around this corner and are going too fast they just slide out and hit other cars or hit parked cars," said Joe. "We’ve had a lot of problems with that over the years."
Joe and his neighbors saw the weather reports and got the same idea, but it’s not just them preparing. Officials with the San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services are getting ready too.
"We’re taking all proactive measures, sharing information on social media, on our website," said San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services spokesman Ivan Gutierrez. "With the ever-evolving nature of weather, [we're] keeping a constant monitoring of it."
Meanwhile, at Banner Island Ballpark downtown, the gates are closed. The Stockton Lantern Festival decided to close for Friday night in anticipation of the storm.
While this storm isn’t expected to bring widespread flooding like last years around this time, officials are asking people to act now to prevent any damage.
“To reduce water damage, make sure your gutters and downspouts are intact and clear of leaves. Inspect your roof, certainly. With the rain comes possibly even stronger winds so they can blow off shingles," said Gutierrez adding that people should also trim any dead branches on trees. "Along with your roof, windows and doors are areas that can form leaks so before a storm, as it hasn't hit quite yet, consider re-sealing them if you can as well as installing weather stripping."
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