Tornado hits Scotts Valley; heavy rain ravages the region

A rare tornado touched down in Scotts Valley on Saturday, toppling cars and forcing residents to take cover as a violent, wind-swept storm battered the rest of the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County.

The South Bay, Peninsula and East Bay saw heavy rain and wind gusts throughout the day, resulting in power outages across the region, but Sunday is expected to be milder, according to the National Weather Service.

The NWS confirmed the tornado at 13.30, but had not determined a degree of difficulty before the evening.

Several cars were overturned in and around a shopping district on Mount Hermon Drive, according to the Scotts Valley Police Department. Power lines were also down and roads blocked in all directions near Mount Hermon Road.

Several people were transported to nearby trauma centers for evaluation and treatment. While injuries have been reported, there have been no fatalities as of 5 p.m. Saturday, according to the department.

Myrl Wallace was just leaving the Target store on Mount Hermon Road with some groceries when the rain started to fall hard again.

“After I got through the doors, the rain went sideways,” said Wallace, 58, of Boulder Creek. “I turned around and there was a tornado. It was right there tearing these branches down. It picked up and moved my car, flipped it sideways and backwards against these trees.”

Wallace’s gray Ford F-150 pickup was crumpled and battered. But at least he was unharmed.

“Well, what are you going to do?” Wallace said. “For me it is not the end of the world. For others it is much worse. I’ll be fine.”

Scotts Valley Deputy Mayor Derek Timm said the twister overturned several vehicles and blew down branches and trees, including one that fell on Scotts Valley Middle School. The high winds ripped traffic signal lights from their support poles, blew down a light pole in the Scotts Valley Target parking lot and toppled utility poles, knocked out power and snarled traffic all afternoon.

“Fortunately, there was no loss of life,” Timm said, praising the quick and professional response of local public safety authorities.

Timm, who grew up in Nebraska and Kentucky, where tornadoes are more common, said Saturday’s event “brings back some not very pleasant memories.” Such events are rare in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The closest he remembered was a “roller cloud” — like a sideways tornado — that accompanied the thunderstorm that ignited the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire.

“It’s just hard to digest what’s going on,” he said.

Earlier in the day, NWS radars indicated strong winds off the San Mateo coast meeting conditions that would trigger a tornado warning for San Francisco and northern San Mateo County. The warning, which was the first ever in San Francisco, went into effect around 5:54 before it was lifted about 20 minutes later. Strong gusts toppled trees and power lines across the city, blocking major roads and streets and shocking residents.

Phill Simon and his family were asleep in their Glen Park home when the screams of tornado alarms going off on their phones woke them up. Then came the sharp putter of roof gravel hitting their windows. A loud booming sound that followed sent the family scrambling for cover until the alarm was lifted.

“I was definitely startled,” said the longtime San Francisco resident. “When I looked out the window, there was lightning flashing, thunder rumbling. It was kind of apocalyptic. It was crazy.”

California witnesses an average of 11 tornadoes a year — typically during the spring and fall, according to the NWS. Although tornadoes can occur across the state, they are commonly found in the northern Central Valley region.

Flood warnings were issued for several towns in the nine county region on Saturday morning.

Along the peninsula, Shoreway Road in Belmond was closed to traffic in both directions for several hours due to flooding caused by rain. In the East Bay, rising waters blocked several underpasses in west Livermore for several hours, according to local police.

In Monterey County, a flood watch went into effect Saturday morning and will last until Sunday afternoon at Carmel River State Beach in Carmel Valley. A coastal flood advisory for areas along the San Francisco and San Pablo bays will remain in effect until Monday afternoon.

Winds between 75-85 mph were recorded by the NWS Saturday, including 83 mph gusts at San Francisco International Airport and 59 mph winds in Oakland. Monterey Airport also experienced gusty winds of 79 mph.

With the strong winds came downed trees and extended power outages that affected residents from Santa Cruz to Richmond.

Boulder Creek resident Chelsea Montanari woke up early Saturday and was getting ready for the day when she heard a jarring crash — part of a nearby tree had fallen and smashed through her roof, narrowly missing her sleeping 3-year-old son.

“My poor baby was crying and covered in debris,” Montanari said. “Many things came out of the roof, including rusty nails. Fortunately, everything missed him, except for the dirt in his hair.”

Living up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Montanari and her family usually see tree branches fall during severe weather, but nowhere to the extent of Saturday morning. “We heard a lot of stories and knew it was a possibility, but we didn’t think it would happen to us,” Montanari said. “So it did, unfortunately.”

Saturday’s storm also left thousands without power. San Mateo County has 77 outages as of 18.42, affecting 4,494 people. In the downtown Menlo Park neighborhoods, more than 1,000 people experienced power outages, along with customers in parts of Millbrae and downtown Burlingame. By Saturday afternoon, most of the power had been restored, according to PG&E.

In Richmond, 289 people are still experiencing power outages, while about 684 people in San Francisco are still without power, both according to PG&E.

Bay Area News Group photographer Karl Mondon contributed to this report.