In the aftermath of this winter’s slew of storms breaking high-rise windows and blowing panels off buildings, the SF Board of Supervisors is learning that many of the broken windows may be from the same manufacturer.

The winter 2023 San Francisco storm season phenomenon of windows and panels flying off buildings started early in the year with a January 4 incident where a glass window flew off of Fox Plaza at Civic Center, likely due to high winds. More wind storms in February ripped metal panels off the SF PUC building. And then in March’s batch of wild storms, we saw a glass panel fly off 555 California Street, a window falling off the perpetually troubled Millennium Tower, and a Mission and Fremont Street office building suffering two broken window incidents within a week.

“As if the sea level rise and orange skies weren’t enough, last month over the course of a couple of weeks, the windows in seven different downtown buildings failed, raining glass down onto the sidewalks below,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin said while introducing new façade inspection legislation at Monday’s SF Board of Supervisors Land Use and Transportation Committee meeting.

“The only miracle here was nobody got seriously hurt,” he added. “People could have been killed.”

These windows are supposed to be able to survive hurricane-force wind gusts of up to 120 miles per hour, yet failed in winds that were nowhere near that strong. Peskin brought up a theory into why so many windows, even in buildings less than ten years old, broke or flew off in the high winds.

“I have heard, anecdotally and it is yet to be proven, that all of the three modern buildings where the glass failed, they were all produced by the same manufacturer,” Peskin said Monday. “So there may be impurities in the glass.”

A 2016 amendment to the existing San Francisco building code required Department of Building Inspection façade inspections to be completed by the end of 2021 for the city’s oldest high-rise buildings that predate 1910 (and there are actually 214 of those!). By that amendment, buildings completed between 1910-1926 had their façade inspections required to be finished by the end of this year, with successive cohort requirements going forward by the building's age. Buildings completed after 1998 wouldn’t require façade inspections for another 30 years.

That assumed age was the main factor in window failures. But we learned during this year’s storms that assumption may not hold true — Millennium Tower was certified for occupancy in 2009, the 350 Mission that had two busted windows was certified in 2015, a 1400 Mission Street building where windows broke was certified in 2016.

Peskin’s proposed legislation would currently add a requirement that buildings completed after 1998, and 15 stories or taller, would be required to produce façade inspection reports by November 1, 2023 (e.g., the beginning of next winter’s storm season). Peskin said 71 buildings meet this criteria. Not all of them are office buildings, many are condos and apartment buildings. The Land Use and Transportation Committee voted to reconsider the legislation next week, with a chance to field more information from the Department of Building Inspection over the next seven days.

Related: Windows Flying Off SF High-Rises Freaks Out City Hall, Beefed-Up Regulations and Inspections On the Way [SFist]

Image: @BrokeAssStuart via Twitter

Six San Francisco “window failure” incidents in a two-week span have the mayor, supervisors, and the DBI vowing a safety crackdown, but it’s unclear any of them understand why so many buildings are having their windows shattered, cracked, or even falling to the ground.

The month of March brought wind storms for the ages, with gusts reaching 77 miles per hour here in San Francisco. That led to a frankly terrifying rash of incidents where a glass panel flew off 555 California Street, a window flew off the Millennium Tower, and the 350 Mission Street building known as Salesforce East saw two broken window incidents in a week, for a total of six incidents that the SF Department of Building Inspection (DBI) charitably calls “glass failures.”  

In fairness, this is happening in Oakland too. But that’s no comfort to Mayor Breed, the SF Board of Supervisors, or the DBI, whom the SF Business Times reports are all introducing new inspections and building regulations to hopefully put a halt to all these windows flying off buildings.

That seems reassuring, except that beyond the high winds (which cannot be prevented), no one seems sure yet what exactly is leading to these dangerous window mishaps. “I mean this is not happening in Singapore with typhoons. This is not happening in Chicago, the windy city. Why is it happening here?" Supervisor Aaron Peskin said to KTVU after the March 22 storm. "I expect to introduce [window] legislation on April 4th as well as call hearings to bring national and international experts.”

That April 4th board meeting is in progress as of this writing, so we’ll know more about what he’s requesting later today.

For her part, Mayor Breed announced new safety requirements Tuesday morning. “The San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (DBI) will now require accelerated façade inspections for San Francisco buildings that are 15 stories or taller and built after 1998,” Breed’s office said in their announcement. “Owners of these buildings will now be required to provide a licensed architect or engineer evaluation of the entire building façade to ensure the safety and stability of all façade elements, including windows.”

Again, very reassuring language, but KRON4 points out an obvious oversight here. “Of the six buildings that experienced glass failure during the storms, three are less than 30 years old,” that station points out. So if the incidents are split evenly between older and newer buildings, it seems arguable whether this “built after 1998” clause is addressing the real problem here.

We should split hairs here on that “six buildings” description: KPIX details that five SF buildings had glass failures March 14-28, yet two of these incidents happened at 350 Mission Street (completed in 2015, so a newer building) for a total of six incidents. But even prior to that wild, windy two weeks of March 14-28, we saw glass fly off Fox Plaza on January 4, and wind ripping panels off the SFPUC building in February. So determining a pattern here may not be easy.

And just to address the unspoken elephant in the room… Do we really trust San Francisco DBI to identify and correct these window hazards? That agency’s reputation is in the toilet right now over bribes and kickbacks sometimes granted for permitting shoddy work. Regrettably, they’re the only DBI we have. And while no one has been significantly injured yet by these “glass failures” yet, we are faced with the unsettling prospect that if high winds continue, we may be putting our lives in the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection’s hands.

Related: Yet More High-Rise Windows Crack as Salesforce East Has Second Broken Window Incident In a Week [SFist]

Image: via Swinerton

Another storm has brought another set of broken windows to 350 Mission Street, the high-rise otherwise known as Salesforce East, in a story that’s becoming frighteningly common this month.

The glass-covered San Francisco high-rise at 350 Mission Street (at Fremont Street), lately called Salesforce East, is perhaps best known for its razzle-dazzle high-tech video wall in the ground floor lobby. But as we endure the umpteenth storm of this winter, 350 Mission is instead becoming known as a broken-window building. NBC Bay Area reports that more cracked and broken windows were discovered on that building Tuesday morning, its second busted-window incident in the past seven days of storms.

This building is not Salesforce Tower itself, but Salesforce leases most of the building. And in last Tuesday's storms, this very same 350 Mission building was found to have at least 20 broken or cracked windows. It’s unclear whether the broken windows reported today did in fact break today, or if they broke last week.

Main Street and Fremont Street were both closed to pedestrians and traffic for a few hours Tuesday morning, but they've since reopened. According to KTVU, “Engineers were able to secure the building and no injuries were reported.”

The video above is from last week’s window breakage. KTVU reported at that time that  the building was cited in a Department of Building Inspection violation for the many broken windows.

This is now the sixth damaged-window incident in the past week, and yes, something’s got to be done before people start getting killed. "I expect to introduce that legislation on April 4th as well as call hearings to bring national and international experts,” Supervisor Aaron Peskin told KTVU. “I mean this is not happening in Singapore with typhoons. This is not happening in Chicago, the windy city. Why is it happening here?"

Peskin says April 4, because regrettably, the board is not meeting today for its usual Tuesday hearing because of Spring Recess. That delay may prove unfortunate, because the way this windy winter has gone, falling windows and panels are suddenly occurring at a frequency we’ve never seen.

Related: Glass Being Blown Off Downtown SF Tower 555 California Street, Shelter-In-Place Order Issued [SFist]

Image: Kilroy Realty

Intense winds on Tuesday caused all kinds of mayhem, leading to widespread power outages, flight delays, trees damaging buildings, glass flying off high-rises, one toppled big rig, and at least one escaped suitcase at SFO.

The evening news on Tuesday and the local morning news broadcasts on Wednesday have been filled with stories of storm-related damage, with some crazy, sustained winds causing all kinds of chaos yesterday.

All across the Bay Area, but especially in the South Bay and East Bay, schools are closed Wednesday due to ongoing power outages. KPIX has a list of closed schools in the Cupertino Union, De Anza, and Mount Diablo school districts, and KTVU has another list including Los Gatos, Campbell, Fremont, and more.  

Some 200,000 Bay Area PG&E customers were still without power as of late Tuesday, as KTVU reported, and PG&E's outage map still shows thousands of customers without power on the SF Peninsula, and across the region.

Out in Concord, winds flipped a couple of prop planes onto their noses at Buchanan Field, as documented below by the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, and a third plane was flipped upside down, per KTVU. No one was injured there.

The tree-toppling stories have been everywhere: a larg pine tree uprooted and crashed into an apartment building in Livermore; a 100-foot-tall eucalyptus tree crashed into a home in Saratoga and took a power line with it; both Highway 92 in Half Moon Bay and southbound 280 in Millbrae were closed due to toppled trees; multiple trees came down on houses in Palo Alto; several eucalyptus trees in a row came down on some duplex buildings in Union City; and BART was single-tracking between Pleasant Hill and Concord due to a very large fallen tree that fell onto a train.

There were ground stops and delays at SFO Tuesday due to the wind and reports of gusts exceeding 80 miles per hour. And Air Canada passenger Declan Weir posted this amusing sight, a roller bag that got loose and was just blowing across the tarmac at SFO.

Previously: Glass Being Blown Off Downtown SF Tower 555 California Street, Shelter-In-Place Order Issued

Around 2,000 PG&E customers in San Francisco lost power on Tuesday, and around 273,000 others across the region are also in the dark as the Bay Area gets lashed with winds at the back side of this latest atmospheric river storm.

The winds began picking up Tuesday morning just after the latest round of rain passed through, and a high-wind advisory is in effect until 11 p.m. tonight.

SFO was under a ground stop as of 1:45 p.m., with all planes being held on the tarmac or at their gates — and starting early this morning, SFO said it was experiencing 80-minute average delays across the board due to wind. Just after 2 p.m. the airport tweeted that the ground stop had ended.

The National Weather Service said that down the California coast, between SFO and Santa Barbara Airport (SBA), surface pressure has been dropping — for the weather nerds, they say, "Wondering why it is so windy today, well the surface pressure gradient has steadily been dropping between SFO and SBA this morning, and is currently -15.8 mb."

Flooding has been occurring in western Sonoma County today as well, with Armstrong Woods Road in Guerneville seeing some significant flooding. Local photographer Kent Porter tweeted images of a sprinter van that got caught in floodwaters on that road and stalled out. A driver and two passengers required rescue by raft.

Downtown Guerneville appears ok so far — but flooding could very well be possible this season. NOAA's California River Forecast Center has the Russian River cresting on Wednesday morning at around 28 feet, which is just at or below flood stage. The Russian River hit a similar crest on Friday night into Saturday morning.

Many people are without power for various reasons, though downed trees and power lines are a likely culprit. The Chronicle reported that around 70,000 customers were without power on the Peninsula Tuesday (as of 2 p.m.), 1,800 were affected in San Francisco proper, and nearly 89,000 in the East Bay and 115,000 in the South Bay.

Flooding is imminent up and down the state, and remains at its worst near the Central Coast, and in parts of Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, currently. Residents along the Feather River in Plumas County have been warned that they may need to seek higher ground, and as the New York Times reports, residents in Santa Barbara County and low-lying areas of San Luis Obispo County are watching for overflowing creeks and rivers too.

Photo: San Mateo County Sheriff/Twitter

This post has been updated to reflect increased power outages.

Amidst Tuesday afternoon’s wind gusts of nearly 65 miles per hour, two metal panels came flying off the SFPUC building near Civic Center, while downed trees and ripped-off roofs kept public employees busy all day.

During Tuesday afternoon’s heavy-duty wind gusts that reached nearly 65 miles per hour and knocked out power for more than 100,000 Bay Area households, we noticed a curious tweet from Broke-Ass Stuart. “Just now part of a building at Polk and Golden Gate fell off and landed on these cars,” he posted.

We asked him to elaborate. “I walked by right after it happened,” Broke-Ass Stuart tells SFist. “The security guards or cops or whoever they were, were checking to make sure the people who were in the car didn’t get hurt. Luckily none of them did.”

We now have more detail on all this from a KTVU report, which describes that two metal panels came flying off the San Francisco Public Utilities building at 525 Golden Gate Avenue. The incident took place around 4 p.m. Tuesday, and KTVU confirms that indeed no one was injured, but people were inside those cars, and one “family was sitting inside their vehicle when one panel hit the back of their car.”

The SFPUC confirmed the panels were from their building, though it's not clear if they were part of the structure or part of Ned Kahn's 200-foot-high, wind-activated public art piece on the building's front.

"These were severe winds, and this was an unfortunate situation,” SFPUC spokesperson John Cote told KTVU. “We're looking into exactly what happened, and we are taking steps to ensure the building is safe for people going by and for those inside."

This was not the only wind bedlam across town Tuesday afternoon. Mission Local has the story of a downed tree at 24th and Potrero Streets that snarled traffic and gave folks a good scare (and yes, it was a ficus tree). “Overhead wires dislodged by the tree threatened a parked sedan and truck, but neither were damaged and no one was injured,” that site reports.

And over in the Excelsior,  a roof was literally ripped off a house on Russia Street. Again, there were fortunately no injuries. “We've had 88 wind related calls, that's in addition to our normal 911 calls," SF Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Jonathan Baxter told KTVU Tuesday.

Gusty winds are expected to return Wednesday afternoon, though it is not anticipated they will be as severe as Tuesday,

Related: Nearly 70,000 in Bay Area Without Power As Winds Top 60mph, Fallen Trees Blocking Bay Bridge [SFist]

Image: @BrokeAssStuart via Twitter

Gusty winds from Sunday's bomb cyclone blew over two semi trucks on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, causing at least one injury and damage to other cars.

Winds on Sunday morning caused the Golden Gate Bridge to "sing" more than usual, but the Richmond Bridge was positioned for more disastrous impacts as the winds gusts upwards of 40 miles per hour. The windy part of the day happened on the earlier side for most of the central and northern part of the Bay Area, but it's not clear when these two trucks toppled on the westbound, lower deck of the Richmond Bridge. Both incidents appear to have happened close together, and as of 5:20 p.m., at least one of the toppled trucks was still blocking lanes on the bridge and causing a traffic backup.

One Twitter user said the two downed trucks were within 100 yards of each other.

One truck driver was reportedly hospitalized with injuries. It's unclear if any other vehicle drivers were also injured in these accidents.

It was without a doubt a record-setting day for wind around the region. A 60 mile-per-hour gust of wind was recorded at SFO on Sunday, and gusts of over 70 miles per hour were recorded in Marin County and on Mount Tamalpais. The strongest gust of all, 92 miles per hour, was recorded at a remote peak southeast of Livermore in Alameda County, according to the National Weather Service.

Tons of rock & vegetation will take crews all day to clear slide NB 17 just past #ScottsValley. Rain could hamper cleanup. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/3ZYFDeWpDF

— David Louie (@abc7david) January 9, 2017

The rain continues, in case you hadn't opened your blinds or left the house in a few days, but luckily the storm system arriving Tuesday will not pack the same punch, rainfall-wise, as the one over the weekend. Still all that saturated ground has led to landslides, rockslides, and toppled trees all over the Bay Area, including a significant landslide that closed down lanes on Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz, and totaled an ABC 7 news van. And high winds are expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon.

And despite this being somewhat seasonally typical rain, it is more rain than many parts of the Bay Area have gotten in January in many years. A few one-day records were broken on Sunday in Santa Rosa and Livermore, parts of Napa and Guerneville remain under some water and remain at risk of further flooding, as KRON 4 reports, and low-lying parts of Marin County nearest the Bay were dealing with floods on top of King Tides this morning, which typically flood areas around the 101 freeway interchange in Sausalito and the Manzanita Park & Ride in Mill Valley.

Also, part of Napa's Silverado Trail was blocked by a landslide on Monday.

Steve Anderson, a National Weather Service forecaster in Monterey, California tells KRON 4, "It’s been about 10 years since we’ve experienced this kind of rainfall. The big concern [with Tuesday's storm] is flash flooding, rapid rises on creeks and the Russian River coming out of its banks again."

Mud and landslides are also a big concern in Big Sur where so much of the land was scorched in the Soberanes Fire last year. As the Chronicle reports, "A mudslide slammed into a car and scattered coastal redwood trees and debris across Highway 1 just south of the Fernwood Resort on Monday morning. No one was injured, but the slide blocked the road for hours."

High winds are also predicted Tuesday, particularly at higher elevations, and there are blizzard conditions currently in the Sierra Nevada, with several Tahoe ski resorts closed today. In San Francisco we can expect 25- to 35-mph winds today, with gusts up to 45 mph, and higher elevations could see gusts up to 65 mph.

Tahoe has seen two to three feet of new snow in the last 24 hours, with Squaw/Alpine reporting 27 inches, and three to seven feet are expected to fall at lake level through Thursday with five to 10 feet falling at higher elevations.

Also: 150 mile-per-hour winds (!) are expected at ridgetops, which means no one should be up there.

Previously: Pictures And Video From A Flooded Guerneville

After a completely rainless January in SF, we're happy to see that a storm is coming through the area as soon as later today. But with that rain, the National Weather Service warns, will come big winds — and unless you got here yesterday, you know that SF's infrastructure and big gusts are unmixy things.

That's why the NWS has issued a Wind Advisory for the entire Bay Area from 4 a.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Saturday, warning of sustained winds of at least 35 miles per hour, and gusts as strong as 60 mph in higher elevations.

While it's going to be blowing all over, areas including Point Reyes, the North Bay's interior valleys and mountains, the shoreline all along the San Francisco Bay, and interior areas of the East Bay, East Bay hills, the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Santa Clara Valley are expected to be hit the hardest by the invisible foe.

Besides screwing up your hair and turning your umbrella inside-out, heavy winds can have a big impact on SF: the NWS says we can expect downed trees, downed power lines, and possible power outages as a result of the gusty weather. I'd add to that Muni disruptions if the overhead lines that power their trolley-style buses and light rail get blown down, and since BART's Oakland Airport connector seems to crap out every time trash blows on their tracks, there might be that to contend with, too.

Finally, if there's one thing San Francisco's trees are great about during wind, it's falling down. Please be careful where you park and mindful of what's above you as you walk!

Previously: Weather Report: Big Rain Finally Returns

Almost 10,000 PG&E customers throughout the Bay Area are without power this morning due to wind-related outages, reports CBS 5, included over 6 thousand in San Francisco alone. The most recent outage began at 5:30 a.m. in SF in parts of Nob Hill, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill, and Pier 39.

The strong, cold gusts that scoured the region yesterday also knocked down trees, causing traffic delays and cleanup nightmares. On Mission Street, palm fronds fell without warning as trunks swayed wildly. Over on Divisadero, a large tree came crashing down, blocking an intersection in both directions and affecting the 24 and 5 bus routes.

Noe Valley also saw a large tree felled by the wind:

As ABC 7 reports, BART was equally afflicted. Tuesday's first service interruptions took place at 1:15 p.m. between the 24th Street and Daly City. A large tree fell on the tracks between the Balboa Park and Glen Park stations, said BART officials, and crews finally finished removing the 30-foot long tree shortly before 4:45 p.m. Some poor commuters were forced to wait out the nearly four hour delay.

And, over in Oakland, BART was also plagued with problems. At around 4 p.m. the brand new BART Oakland Airport connector, earlier the victim of a PG&E outage, was stopped between Coliseum Station and the airport because of another electrical problem.

A wind advisory is in place through midday today from the National Weather Service.

A spate of surprisingly high winds, some as gusty as 65 mph or more, hit the East and North Bays overnight leading to a number of falling trees, power outages, and two fatal accidents in Oakland.

One man was killed either by a falling tree or after stepping on a downed power line (depending on whether you believe the Chron or ABC 7) at Austin Street and Fruitvale Avenue in Oakland just after 8 p.m.

Another man died a half hour later in a vehicle accident on Skyline Boulevard after he apparently tried to avoid fallen debris and ended up crashing his car.

The winds left 42,000 people without power in the East Bay at one point last night. That number is now down to 13,000 according to PG&E. Additionally, there are many downed tree branches and uprooted trees to clean up.

The high wind advisory was only just lifted, at 10 a.m. Much cleanup is now underway.

Update: ABC7's Heather Ishimaru shares this photo, via Twitter, of the roots of a huge eucalyptus tree that fell near Lake Merritt.

[ABC 7]
[Chron]

Blustery last night, yes? Indeed. And we'll be getting more of it today. According to the Chronicle, record-setting winds were recorded at Ocean Beach, reaching 75mph. The winds not only knocked over a giant tree at 48th Avenue and neat Geary Boulevard, but it they also forced the temporary closure of Great Highway.

SF Appeal notes that an estimated 4,600 customers were left sans power overnight due to the wind.

Further, the wind is expected to get "more dangerous throughout the morning and afternoon." ABC 7 reports, "Gusts could reach 45 mph for most of the Bay Area today and 50-55 mph over the Bay and Ocean. A Wind Advisory is now in effect in Marin, Napa and Sonoma Counties until 8 p.m.. Also, a Gale Warning is in effect for Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and San Francisco Counties until 9 p.m.

According to PG&E, strong winds will hit the Bay Area over the next two days. This could result in power outages and ruined hairdos. "The utility is anticipating some power outages if the wind storm produces the 60 mph gusts that weather forecasters are predicting," PG&E spokeswoman Tamar Sarkissian told BCN.

The National Weather Service also issued a high-wind warning for the Bay Area, which will be in effect for Wednesday and Thursday. (Also, look at this photo SF Appeal used for their high-wind story. Ack, we love windblown dogs! Ahem. Moving on.)

Customers reporting power outages should PG&E at 800-743-5002 for info. And, of course, you might want to carry a (nice) hat around with you this week just in case.

Local photog Brendan Luna snapped these shots of a tree blown over by fierce winds in Duboce Park on Saturday. "Windy conditions on Saturday at about 2 p.m. caused a large tree in Duboce Park to be uprooted and fall on parked vehicles," reports the Examiner. "A fire dispatcher said no one was injured. Winds were gusting from the west up to 27 mph."