SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. – On Saturday, a rare tornado struck Northern California, wreaking a lot of damage as the spiraling vortex turned houses, businesses, and vehicles upside down and left thousands without electricity.
Images and videos from Santa Cruz County revealed the community of Scotts Valley suffered the most; Christmas shoppers sought cover as the extreme storms passed through the area.
In one video, a lady could be heard screaming, “Let’s go home, let’s go home,” as trash flew over the couple’s car on one of the main thoroughfares at about 1:30 p.m. local time.
From the brief tornado, which was classified as an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with winds of 90 mph, local officials said numerous individuals were hurt and damage was noted to be significant.
According to the Scotts Valley Police Department, several local roads stayed closed all evening and should stay closed until at least Sunday morning.
Police claimed this would let staff clean trash and other hazards from the road and nearby areas as well as enable repairs of damaged powerlines and other equipment.
San Francisco received its first-ever Tornado Warning some hours earlier as a strong storm system tore over the state.
Survey teams of the National Weather Service looked at damage left behind by the strong storm and determined that straight-line winds of about 80 mph were in charge.
PowerOutage.us recorded more than 128,000 electric outages in the Golden State during the height of the severe storms, most of which were south of the Bay Area and in the Sierra Nevada.
Tornadoes are rare in most of the western United States, according to a NOAA database.
Less than 500 recorded tornadoes in California since 1950 have caused injuries but no deaths.
The NWS office in Sacramento reports that, on average, 11 events happen annually most often in the spring and fall.
Before another round of heavy rain approaches the coast on Monday and Tuesday, the atmospheric river event responsible for the current round of severe weather is predicted to fade on Sunday.
