San Francisco recovers after latest storm turned deadly

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco is recovering after this latest round of storms turned deadly. 

There are trees and branches down everywhere in the city. They pose one of the biggest threats in wind events like we saw yesterday, and falling trees killed two people in the city, and sent three others to the hospital with serious injuries. 

All around San Francisco, crews are clearing fallen trees and branches that collapsed under the strong winds that whipped the Bay Area Tuesday.

Wind gusts clocked at more than 70 miles per hour brought down a tree on Post Street near Polk, one of the two deadly tree incidents Tuesday.

In a separate incident, a tree collapsed on a San Francisco police vehicle, sending the sergeant inside to the hospital with serious injuries. Police sources confirm that sergeant is Kevin Brugaletta.

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The city's emergency officials say when storms like this hit, they're asking people to remain indoors to protect themselves, and so first responders don't have to put themselves in harms way. 

"It is extremely hazardous out on the roads and as we saw yesterday, two individuals lost their lives just going about their business in the middle of the storm," said Mary Ellen Carroll from San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management.

Emergency officials say the city's 911 system was inundated with calls, meaning longer wait times for actual emergencies. Officials say calls about downed trees should go to the city's 311 system, if those trees bring down power lines or injures or traps someone that call should go to 911. "We really are asking for the public's help to route those calls in the right direction and it will also help them," said Carroll. "So, anything that is not life-threatening should go to 311."

The winds are also the presumed cause of windows blown out of high-rises, one in the city's Embarcadero neighborhood, and another from the Millennium Tower in the East Cut.
San Francisco Bay Ferry tweeted video of the storm rocking the donut fenders on the dock saying it was the wind, not the rain that caused them to cancel service to make ensure passengers wouldn't be put in danger.

Ireland Ingle was onboard the ferry as those winds whipped up Tuesday, and says it was by far the roughest ride she's ever experienced. "It was pretty crazy," said Ingle. "I've been on some rough ferry rides I would say. I felt like usually we're going up and down, but this one we were going side to side and even the people on the boat were looking a little nervous."

Ultimately the crew on her ferry decided it was too dangerous to carry on. "At one point they got on the speaker and went 'Yeah, we gotta turnaround, we're not even going to make it,'" said Ingle. 

"We were probably only, like, 10 minutes away."

San Francisco's emergency management department says we're not done with these storms yet. There are more in the forecast for next week. The emergency officials say the unsettled weather patterns that are leading to these storms look like they will be around through late April.