LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Tuesday, the Department of Water Resources conducted the year’s first snow survey, which has Cal Fire officials concerned about increased fire danger.
The lack of precipitation across the state has led to one of the driest winters on record. According to the Department of Water Resources, the statewide water content is at 19 percent of normal.
Despite the fact that many areas of the state are experiencing cooler temperatures, the drier than normal conditions, coupled with wind events and low humidity, have frequently increased the fire danger over the past month, officials reported.
Cal Fire said its crews responded to an increased number of wildfires for a typical December.
“Fire activity in Northern California during winter is very rare, where snow-covered mountains and rain-soaked hillsides typically keep the fire danger relatively low,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire’s director. “We will be monitoring the rain levels over the next couple months, as it will be an indicator of the type of fire activity spring and summer will bring.”
In response to the above-normal fire activity, Cal Fire has been able to increase its staffing using its 4,700 permanent employees with the help of Cal Fire inmate fire crews.
In many areas Cal Fire has canceled burn days or even banned debris burning. The public is asked to be extra cautious due to the dry conditions, especially on windy days.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport is continuing to be hit by numerous graffiti incidents, with police investigating several more cases this week.
Beginning in late November, businesses, Library Park and even schools have been damaged by graffiti or other vandalism, as Lake County News has reported.
In one case late last month, police reported that several windows at Terrace Middle School were shot out by a BB or pellet gun.
With the arrival of the new year, the focus appears to be switching from buildings to vehicles.
From Sunday through Tuesday the Lakeport Police Department took five reports involving vehicles that had been vandalized during nighttime hours, according to Sgt. Kevin Odom.
At this point the new cases do not appear to be related to previous instances of graffiti, “But we’re still investigating,” Odom said.
In the recent cases, Odom said the vandals primarily are using a large ink pen to write on cars in different locations around the city.
All of the earlier cases remain under investigation, Odom said.
NICE, Calif. – A man was lifeflighted to an out-of-county trauma center Monday night after he was reportedly assaulted with a baseball bat.
The incident was reported shortly before 6 p.m. at 3825 Manzanita Ave. in Nice.
The victim and his girlfriend were driving through the area when four subjects – a male and three females – allegedly yelled at them to leave because it was their “territory,” according to reports from the scene.
The man pulled over and confronted them, and was allegedly hit several times in the head with a metal baseball bat by the male in the group, the reports indicated.
The woman in the vehicle honked the horn and yelled at the suspects that she was calling police, and the group ran off, according to the radio reports.
Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the man sustained serious head injuries.
Brown said Northshore Fire Protection District paramedics transported the man via ground ambulance to a landing zone at Sentry Market, where a REACH air ambulance picked him up.
The helicopter lifted off for Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital shortly before 6:30 p.m., radio reports stated.
Further information about the male victim was not available Monday night.
A man matching the physical description of the male suspect implicated in the beating was arrested in Nice for assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, but jail officials would not confirm whether that arrest was for the assault involving the baseball bat.
Kevin Andrew Hoffert, 31, of Nice, Calif., was arrested on Monday, January 2, 2012, for assaulting another man with an aluminum baseball bat. Lake County Jail booking photo.
NICE, Calif. – A Northshore man has been arrested for assaulting another man with an aluminum baseball bat in a Monday evening altercation.
Arrested in the case was 31-year-old Kevin Andrew Hoffert of Nice.
Hoffert was booked for felony assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm with great bodily injury likely and a felony parole violation on Monday night, according to his Lake County Jail booking sheet.
Lake County News had attempted on Monday and again on Tuesday to confirm with sheriff’s officials that his arrest was for the assault, but official confirmation did not come until Wednesday afternoon.
On Monday evening sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to an address on Manzanita Drive in Nice in response to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon, according to Sgt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
When deputies arrived they contacted the adult male victim, who Brooks said was was being attended to by medical personnel from Northshore Fire’s Station 85 for injuries to his head.
The victim was transported by a Northshore Fire ambulance to Sentry Market, where a REACH air ambulance picked him up and took him to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment, as Lake County News has reported.
Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital told Lake County News late Tuesday that the male victim in the case was treated and released from the hospital.
During their investigation deputies learned there had been an altercation in the street involving the victim and four other individuals, Brooks said.
The victim was in a vehicle traveling on Manzanita Drive when the four individuals – which included three females and one male – started throwing rocks at the vehicle, according to Brooks’ report.
He said the male victim exited the vehicle and asked what was going on. Two of the females began punching the victim, who put his arms in front of his face in an attempt to protect himself.
The male who was walking with the three females – who later was identified as Hoffert – allegedly struck the victim in the head with a baseball bat. The victim fell to the ground and Hoffert reportedly struck the victim on the head a second time with the bat, Brooks said.
Hoffert was later located at an address on Dawes Street in Nice, where Deputy Shawn Nimau arrested him on the charges, according to Brooks and jail records.
Hoffert was booked into the Lake County Jail and placed on a no-bail hold because of the alleged parole violation, jail records indicated.
Hoffert made his first court appearance in the case on Wednesday, at which time Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff charged with him with felony assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly using the aluminum baseball bat in the Monday night incident.
Hinchcliff told Lake County News that Hoffert is scheduled to return to court next Monday, Jan. 9.
Hoffert’s bail has been set at $100,000, Hinchcliff said.
Jail records show Hoffert was arrested last July for a felony parole violation and a misdemeanor drug charge, and arrested again on a felony parole violation in November.
Anyone who may have information regarding this case is encouraged to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit at 707-262-4200.
MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. – A Sea Ranch man has been identified as the victim in a fight that turned fatal on New Year’s Eve in Fort Bragg.
Jose G. Madrid, 45, was the man found unresponsive just after 1 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 31, by Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies dispatched to the scene of a physical fight, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
Glenn Hughes, 52, of Fort Bragg, allegedly was found standing over Hughes’ body. Eyewitnesses told deputies that they saw Hughes beating Madrid.
Hughes was arrested and booked into the Mendocino County Jail for murder, the sheriff’s office reported.
An autopsy on Madrid was scheduled for Monday, Smallcomb said. No results were announced.
Anyone who may have information in regards to this incident is urged to call Det. Dustin Lorenzo at 707-961-2692.
LUCERNE, Calif. – A water heater was ruled the cause of a fire that destroyed a mobile home late last week.
The fire was first reported just after 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 30, at the Country Club Mobile Home Park, located at 3630 Country Club Drive in Lucerne, according to Northshore Fire Protection District.
Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said the fire was traced to the trailer's water heater closet.
He said half of the singlewide mobile home was destroyed by fire, while the other half was severely damaged by smoke.
The woman who owns the trailer will be able to salvage some of her personal possessions from it, Beristianos said.
Charles Peter Lamb, 30, of Lakeport, Calif., was arrested on Monday, January 2, 2012, for allegedly raping a female acquaintance. Lake County Jail photo.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Police have arrested a local man for allegedly raping a female acquaintance.
Charles Peter Lamb, 30, of Lakeport was arrested at 8:30 a.m. Monday by Lakeport Police Officer Joe Eastham, according to Lake County Jail records.
Lamb’s booking records show he was booked on a felony count of rape by force or fear of injury.
Sgt. Kevin Odom said that on Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastham was dispatched to St. Helena Hospital Clearlake on the report of a female who was being treated there for a sexual assault that occurred in the city of Lakeport.
Eastham responded to the hospital and contacted the alleged victim, a local woman in her 20s, who identified Lamb as her attacker, Odom said.
Odom said Eastham investigated the case and arrested Lamb the morning after the initial interview with the alleged victim.
Police aren’t offering many details on the circumstances surrounding the alleged rape.
Asked about how Lamb and the woman knew each other, Odom would only say that they were acquainted.
Lamb’s bail was set at $100,000. He remained in the Lake County Jail on Tuesday.
Odom said Lamb is expected to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Snow surveyors on Tuesday reported that California’s mountain snowpack is among the driest for the date on record.
Manual and electronic readings on Tuesday record the snowpack’s statewide water content at 19 percent of the Jan. 3 average. That is only 7 percent of the average April 1 measurement, when the snowpack is normally at its peak before the spring melt, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Despite the dry conditions, water managers remain cautiously optimistic about this year’s water supply.
“Fortunately, we have most of winter ahead of us, and our reservoir storage is good,” said Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin.
Electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 21 percent of normal for the date and 8 percent of the April 1 seasonal average; 13 percent of normal for the date and 5 percent of the April 1 average for the central Sierra; and the southern Sierra’s results are 26 percent of average for the date and 9 percent of the April 1 average.
Statewide, the snowpack water content is 19 percent of normal for today’s date and 7 percent of April 1, the agency reported.
The Department of Water Resources cooperating agencies conduct manual snow surveys around the first of the month from January to May. The manual surveys supplement and check the accuracy of real-time electronic readings from sensors up and down the state.
The agency’s initial estimate is that the State Water Project (SWP) will be able to deliver 60 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet of water requested by the 29 public agencies that supply more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated farmland.
The 60 percent delivery estimate is largely based on the known quantify of carryover reservoir storage. Unknown is how much snow and rain the state will get the rest of this winter, the state said.
Calendar year 2011 illustrates how weather-driven water supply conditions can dramatically change. The initial 2011 estimate was that the SWP would be able to deliver 25 percent of the slightly more than 4 million acre-feet requested. As winter took hold and storms swept the state, a near-record snowpack and heavy rains resulted in deliveries of 80 percent of requests in 2011. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007.
The last 100 percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years because of Delta pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish – was in 2006, officials reported.
Lake Oroville in Butte County, the SWP’s principal storage reservoir with a capacity of 3.5 million acre-feet, is still 72 percent full thanks to last winter’s heavy storms. That is 114 percent of average for the date.
Lake Shasta north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s (CVP) largest reservoir with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet, is 68 percent full (106 percent of average).
San Luis Reservoir in Merced County, an important reservoir south of the Delta, is 95 percent full (137 percent of average for the date). San Luis, with a capacity of 2, 027,840 acre-feet, is an important source of water for both the SWP and the CVP when pumping from the Delta is restricted or interrupted.
An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot.
Mountain snow that melts into reservoirs, streams and aquifers in the spring and summer provides approximately one-third of the water for California’s households, farms and industries.
THIS QUAKE'S MAGNITUDE HAS BEEN ADJUSTED FROM 3.0 DOWN TO 2.9 BY THE US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
COBB, Calif. – The US Geological Survey reported that a 2.9-magnitude earthquake took place near The Geysers geothermal steamfield Monday morning.
The initial report on the quake, which could later be adjusted for magnitude, indicated that it occurred at 7:54 a.m. two miles north of The Geysers, four miles west of Cobb and seven miles northwest of Anderson Springs.
Its depth was recorded at 1.5 miles, the survey reported.
Seven shake reports were submitted from the same number of zip codes – Middletown, Kelseyville, Calistoga, San Ramon, Berkeley, Sausalito and San Jose.
COBB, Calif. – A Kelseyville man suffered major injuries as the result of a Tuesday afternoon solo-vehicle crash on Cobb Mountain.
Richard Mills, 40, was injured when his vehicle rolled over at around 3:30 p.m. on Highway 175 at the southern entrance to Wildcat Road, the California Highway Patrol reported.
A California Fish and Game warden was among the first to arrive at the scene, finding Mills conscious and alert but with multiple fractures, according to radio reports.
Kelseyville Fire and CHP also responded to the site, where both lanes of traffic were reportedly blocked by the crash.
Firefighters transported Mills to a landing zone at Kit’s Corner, the intersection of Highway 29 and Highway 281, where a REACH air ambulance met them.
REACH 6 lifted off with Mills en route to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital at about 4:20 p.m., according to radio reports.
Highway 175 at Wildcat Road was reopened at approximately 4:13 p.m., the CHP reported.
A semi truck overturned on Highway 20 in Lucerne, Calif., on Monday, January 2, 2012, spilling a load of corrugated metal that hit and broke a nearby power pole, leading to outages and many hour of repairs. Photo by John Jensen.
LUCERNE, Calif. – The cause of an early Monday afternoon semi crash on Highway 20 in Lucerne that led to traffic detours and power outages is still under investigation.
Driver William Soito III, 56, of Sacramento was traveling to Eureka, driving westbound in a 2002 Sterling semi pulling a trailerload of corrugated steel, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP report from Officer Kevin Domby said Soito entered a lefthand curve near Sixth Avenue and the trailer overturned to the right, resulting in the load of steel hitting the power pole and street sign at the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Highway 20.
The truck tractor and trailer both came to rest on their right sides, facing west, and partially blocking Highway 20’s westbound lane, Domby said.
Domby said the crash’s cause remains under investigation.
The crash resulted in major damage to the power pole, which Domby said led to an extended power outage in the immediate area.
Northshore Fire treated Soito at the scene for a minor cut to the top of his head, Domby reported.
Domby said Northshore Fire Protection District responded to the scene and set up a traffic detour with the assistance of a passing California Fish and Game warden.
Power in some areas was restored following the initial outage, although at about 1:15 p.m. Pacific Gas & Electric took the power offline from Seventh Avenue east to Bell Ray Avenue for several hours while the damaged pole was replaced by a PG&E crew from Ukiah. An AT&T crew also was on scene.
Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol were on scene throughout the day to assist with traffic control, due to a long-term closure of Highway 20. They kept traffic moving by routing vehicles around the crash site, moving them down Country Club Drive and back to the highway.
Northshore Fire Protection District personnel also were present throughout the day to help with managing the incident.
Deputy Chief Pat Brown was planning for potential issues due to the power outage, including arranging for enough backup oxygen for local residents.
When power outages occur, people who need to use oxygen tanks must rely on the fire department for assistance in getting replacement bottles, he said.
There were two people who needed backup oxygen, and Brown had arranged with Sutter Lakeside Hospital to bring in an additional supply if needed.
“We’ve got all of our backup supply out,” he said later in the evening, adding that Lakeport Fire also had given Northshore Fire some oxygen to keep them stocked up.
Following the crash, Soito’s little dog Eddie – a Chihuahua/Shih Tzu mix – had escaped from the truck and disappeared for several hours.
Northshore Fire Chief Jay Beristianos said fire staff spent about an hour looking for the little dog and notifying residents in the area that he was missing.
Later in the day, a woman who lives on Sixth Avenue came home and found the little dog outside of her house. She brought him down to the crash scene and dropped him off, receiving an ovation from the crowd who was gathered there.
The semi had to be moved in order for PG&E to replace the pole. Willits Towing responded with a large semi tow truck which it used to upright Soito’s truck shortly before 8 p.m.
Brown said forklifts and a flatbed truck were brought in to remove the metal construction materials.
Late Monday officials at the scene reported that the highway would remain closed through most of the night. PG&E was to bring in their own staff to conduct traffic control as work continued to repair and replace equipment.
There were reports from some community members of the power coming back on just after 9 p.m. PG&E said that all customers were expected to have their power restored by 2 a.m.
An overturned semi is resulting in a lengthy closure on Highway 20 in Lucerne, Calif., on Monday, January 2, 2012. Photo by Laurie Ann Jarrett.
THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH INFORMATION ABOUT A POWER OUTAGE.
LUCERNE, Calif. – A semi passing through the Northshore town of Lucerne early Monday afternoon overturned and hit a power pole, an incident that is resulting in an hours-long closure of the highway and a temporary power shutdown.
The California Highway Patrol reported that the single-vehicle crash occurred just after 12 p.m. on Highway 20 at Sixth Avenue near the Lake County Sheriff’s substation.
According to initial reports the semi’s driver was not speeding, but as he drove through a slight curve in the road his heavy load of metal materials shifted, leading to the truck overturning.
A Lake County News reporter at the scene said the truck rolled into a power pole, snapping the pole and causing the power lines to fall into nearby trees.
Northshore Fire Deputy Chief Pat Brown said the driver suffered minor injuries – a cut on his head and scrapes – and refused medical transport at the scene.
Along with Northshore Fire, CHP, Caltrans, AT&T and PG&E responded to the crash site on Monday afternoon.
Pacific Gas & Electric was to bring in their own traffic control later in the afternoon and will begin repairing the pole, officials reported.
Brown said they are bringing in a loader to move the truck’s load in order to let PG&E access the damaged pole.
Shortly before 2 p.m., Brown estimated that Highway 20 would be closed for up to five hours as repairs are made. Traffic will be routed around the crash site and onto Country Club Drive.
Power in a portion of Lucerne also is off to allow PG&E to conduct repairs.
Kyle Woodard, a lineman for PG&E, said they were able to isolate the outage area.
While originally it had been estimated that an outage would extend from Ceago to Glenhaven, Woodard said the power was taken offline from Seventh Avenue east along Highway 20 to Bell Ray Avenue.
Lucerne residents in that area should be prepared for a long outage; Woodward said power is expected to be restored on Tuesday.
Willits Towing arrived with two tow trucks, including a heavy duty semi tow truck that is the biggest truck of its kind north of Santa Rosa, according to company owner Mason Cook.
“We’re ready to pull it over just as soon as they give us the word,” he said of the overturned truck.
Lake County News will continue to update the story and post Facebook and Twitter updates as information becomes available.
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