working hard around the clock dealing with the storms .
We responded to more than 300 service requests for downed street trees and tree limbs , including many that toppled overhead wires , tumbled onto parked cars and homes and fell across roads and sidewalks . Thankfully , no one was injured . The arborist , landscape and general laborer teams went from call to call at a quick , steady and safe pace to get the job done – and often in heavy rainfall and bone-chilling temperatures .
At the Operations Yard , we handed out nearly 7,000 sandbags to San Francisco residents , who each can get up to 10 free ones to protect their property . The giveaway drew people from all across San Francisco . Our sandbag program is ongoing . We hand them out Monday-Saturday , 8 a . m . to 2 p . m . at the Public Works
Operations Yard ; enter at the Marin Street / Kansas Street gate and please bring proof of San Francisco residency .
Before and after the rains , our employees were on the street clearing catch basins of leaves and litter to help keep the storm drains clear to keep water from building up and flooding nearby homes and businesses .
If you ’ re interested in helping keep the catch basins clear , consider joining the Adopt a Drain program . It ’ s a great way to help take care of your neighborhood . And you can even name the drain ( or catch basin ) that you adopt .
The pothole crews also saw a surge in demand to fix street defects , which proliferate during heavy rains . They responded to nearly 2,000 pothole service requests in January – about
500 more than a typical month . Our engineering team also was kept busy with mudslides and rockslides , including one onto O ’ Shaughnessy Boulevard that prompted an emergency declaration to shut down the road and perform hillside stabilization work to minimize the danger of falling boulders . Find out more about the rockslide in the story on the next page .
And behind the scenes , the Radio Room employees house in our Operations Yard never stopped , handling thousands of service requests that came in during the storms . The Radio Room staff triaged the requests and made sure they got to the appropriate crews in the field , as well as coordinated with other City agencies .
At the end of the day , teamwork , experience and grit displayed by Public Works served the public well .
January 2017 - San Francisco Public Works Newsletter