Thien-An Truong
Two trees neighboring Tower Lawn near the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library fell during heavy rainfall on Monday. San José received more than an inch of rain.
On Monday evening, the Bay Area experienced heavy rainfall from a passing storm, which caused two trees to fall on San José State’s campus and flooding on roadways.
The San José Penitencia area experienced the most rain in the Peninsula and South Bay, with 2.13 inches of rainfall within a 24-hour period ending Tuesday at 6 a.m., according to a Wednesday Mercury News report.
The SJSU campus was affected by storm damage with one tree uprooted in front of Hugh Gillis Hall and another between the music building and the Student Union.
Aaron Klemm, associate vice president of Facilities, Development and Operations (FD&O) at SJSU, said that the FD&O faculty follows a checklist for weather events.
“The FD&O has kind of a pre-storm checklist. It’s like an emergency response where our swing shift employees pull them off their regular duties and they are on storm duty-type of activities to look for these situations and manage that,” Klemm said.
The FD&O has multiple service areas, including environmental health and safety, grounds and landscaping, construction, buildings and facilities, and more, according to their SJSU webpage.
However, some service areas with the FD&O, such as custodial and moving services, as well as grounds and landscaping, are currently vacant, according to the same webpage.
Klemm said that the faculty worked to fix the obstructed pathways after the storm had passed.
“As the tree toppled over, it could damage underground infrastructure in that location, so we need to assess as we go through the process of restoring that particular part of campus,” Klemm said.
Klemm said that the tree didn’t cause any foundational issues underground and only obstructed the path for students.
The two trees were removed and cleaned from the area by the end of Tuesday, and did not cause significant damage to other surrounding architecture.
Quinn Genshlea, a fourth-year psychology student, said seeing the area surrounding the fallen tree was “crazy,” and left him questioning how students can be better prepared for future storms.
“Maybe safety alerts, like a precursor safety alert, kind of how they do like, active investigation alerts,” said Genshlea. “I know they’ve done it with storms before, like there’s a major storm coming.”
SJSU’s 2024 Landscape Master Plan shows a framework for trees and foliage to better suit the campus, meaning the nature surrounding the campus will eventually be replenished to fit in with California’s native plants, according to the plan documents.
Aside from cleaning up the fallen trees, Klemm said the FD&O faculty kept watch after flash flooding and any drain clogging during and after the storm.
“We had a few custodians and some maintenance mechanics on the swing shift, and as the rain got really intense, they were monitoring flooding across campus, to be sure the storm drains were working,” Klemm said.
He said that intermittent flooding occurred between Industrial Studies and Parking Lot 4– located on South 10th Street close to East San Antonio Street.
However, the water eventually drained once the rainfall decreased.
The heavy rainfall caused certain sections of freeways to experience excessive flooding, and some lanes were closed on the Interstate 680 freeway going northbound near Alum Rock, as seen in a post by Reddit user u/lipton.
By taking the Interstate 680 freeway, the distance between Alum Rock and SJSU is just over 5 miles, making commute times between 10-20 minutes both north and southbound according to Google Maps directions.
A transition ramp from northbound Interstate 880 to eastbound Interstate 980 was also closed for approximately two hours and 30 minutes on Monday evening, according to a Wednesday article from the Mercury News.
Areas in the Santa Cruz mountains received the largest amount of rainfall, such as Bonny Doon with 2.37 inches and Scott Creek with 2.25 inches, according to the Mercury News.
Students commuting from the Santa Cruz mountains experienced harsh driving conditions on windier roads.
Willow Hovey, a second-year graphic design student, said she drives on Bear Creek Road to commute to SJSU from Boulder Creek and was stressed by the rain.
“The road gets really wet, which causes runoff on the side of the road, so I definitely have to go slow to make sure that my car doesn’t slide,” Hovey said.
She said that the lack of cell phone reception while driving on mountainous roads also added fear.
Bear Creek Road is a 13-mile windy stretch connecting Highway 9 and Highway 17, but it typically has poor cell phone reception and is considered risky for commuters, according to Hovey and a Bear Creek Road Local Wiki webpage.
“If you were to get in an accident or something, you kind of just hope that you’re able to connect somehow to get help,” Hovey said.
SJSU’s Current Weather Advisories webpage has resources to prepare for extreme weather conditions.
The Current Weather Advisories webpage did not provide new updates about storm damage, but the site includes a link to the National Weather Service website for current conditions at the San José International Airport for reference, according to the main CWA webpage.
The University Police Department’s (UPD) Alert SJSU program is a notification system that quickly disseminates emergency information during major incidents, according to the Alert SJSU webpage.
Louis Adamsel, the emergency services manager associated with UPD, said the Spartan Safe app is the best tool to stay informed about incidents on campus.
“The Spartan Safe App provides an interactive map that highlights walking impacts, construction zones, and other safety-related updates,” Adamsel said.
Adamsel said that UPD closely coordinates with the University Marketing and Communications team when severe weather storms affect campus operations.
Despite student concerns about alerts regarding weather conditions, Adamsel said that not every weather event qualifies as a campus emergency.
“Our team also works with researchers and staff at other SJSU sites, including Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, to ensure safety awareness and consistent messaging,” Adamsel said. “Our priority is to communicate when conditions pose a significant safety risk to the campus community.”
Besides the Spartan Safe App, alerts are sent through students’ emails, phone numbers, the SJSU radio station KSJS 90.5 FM, the SJSU social media accounts, and more, according to the Alert SJSU website.
Current resources about storms and floods provided by the UPD recommend creating an emergency kit with essential supplies, actively monitoring weather warnings, and staying indoors if necessary, according to a one-pager available on the safety reference guides webpage.
“UPD and Facilities teams will continue to monitor and respond to conditions as needed,” Adamsel said. “But we encourage community members to stay weather-aware by following local news, checking forecasts, and taking appropriate personal precautions.”