Scotts Valley recovers after rare, damaging tornado touchdown
SCOTTS VALLEY, Calif. - Amid a downpour on Monday, crews in Scotts Valley continued cleanup efforts from weekend storms, helping the small town of 11,000 residents inch toward normalcy.
"Traffic is not the best. Well, it's better now; the lights just came back on, which is sweet to have traffic control," said one woman outside the town's Target store.
Snarled traffic along Mount Hermon Road eased as crews repaired or replaced some of the 15 traffic signals damaged or destroyed Saturday.
"Mount Hermon Road is the second busiest in all of Santa Cruz County. So that traffic flowing again for rush hour and school traffic is one of our highest priorities right now," said City Manager Mali Lagoe.
A rare tornado touched down in Scotts Valley along a one-third-mile area on Mount Hermon Road, from Lockwood Lane to Kings Village Road. Trees were toppled, cars were tossed and flipped, and a handful of people were injured.
"We rated it an EF-1 tornado. Our preliminary estimate right now is about 90 miles per hour winds," said National Weather Service meteorologist Dalton Behringer. "To have it in the mountains like that, Scotts Valley, well inland from the direct coastline, is exceedingly rare."
He said the tornado warning issued for San Francisco wasn't also issued for Scotts Valley because ground conditions showed possible waterspouts over the ocean and thunderstorms inland.
"The severe thunderstorm warning at the time was issued about 10 minutes before the tornado occurred and did call for people to take shelter in a sturdy building," said Behringer.
Added Lagoe, "I think in the future they'll realize when they see that hook on the back of that storm cell, maybe a tornado really will happen, even though it's so unusual in a mountain community."
Some buildings sustained damage, but for the most part, it was business as usual on Monday as the final shopping week before the winter solstice makes up for lost time due to adverse weather.
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EF1 tornado in Scotts Valley, big rigs and cars overturned from high-speed winds
A powerful winter storm battered the Bay Area Friday night into Saturday, causing widespread issues, power outages and downed trees and flooding. Off-and-on rain and strong, gusty winds continued to hammer the region as the storm moves east.
"When nature hits, you count your blessings around you. You see how lucky you were that you weren't in the middle of that," said one resident.
The National Weather Service is conducting an after-action report to identify areas where improvements can be made.
City officials said of the three people hospitalized with injuries from the tornado, two have been discharged. That includes Cal Fire Battalion Chief Manny Garcia, who was inside his vehicle when it was flipped by the 90 mph winds.
Jesse Gary is a reporter based in the station's South Bay bureau. Follow him on the Instagram platform, @jessegontv and on Facebook, @JesseKTVU