Strong winds take down trees, flip over planes in Concord
DANVILLE, Calif. - Dangerous winds hit the Bay Area Tuesday as part of the latest atmospheric river, causing damage, knocking out power, and taking down trees, which fell on buildings. The winds even flipped over small aircraft in Concord.
The winds had residents on edge.
"I've packed things in plastic bags," Danville homeowner Alexis Cassell said, as she pointed to ice chests filled with perishable.
She was trying to keep food from spoiling due to the power outage that affected many people in Contra Costa County.
But Cassell faced another problem.
"Look, there's the top of the tree," Cassell said as she looked toward her roof where her neighbor's tree had fallen.
She's waiting for an arborist to show up to help assess the damage.
"Shocked," said Cassell. "After they cut it up, they'll know. They'll look at the gutter. They'll look at the roof. They'll look all around we have a shed and see if it caused any damage."
In nearby Concord, strong winds flipped three small planes at Buchanan Field.
A photo taken by the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District showed two planes flipped on their noses.
Those two planes were re-positioned.
A third plane remained upside down.
Rashid Yahya with Pacific States Aviation at the airport, said fortunately no one was hurt.
"I've been working out of here for about 11 years and I've never seen this before. We do get strong winds but not airplanes flipping over," said Yahya.
Downed trees in Walnut Creek caused damage including a fire engine with ConFire.
Spokesman Steve Hill said a crew was responding to a call of downed power lines when a tree on Ygnacio Valley Road fell onto the engine, causing extensive damage.
He said three firefighters were medically evaluated, but they were not injured.
"This afternoon, we had upwards of 90 to 100 incidents in an hour which is quite a lot," said Hill.
In downtown Danville, the storm has turned normally busy Hartz Avenue into a virtual ghost town.
A power outage caused many businesses to close early.
Homeowner Carolyn Howard said she got her shopping done early in the day before the power went out.
"I'm ready for a generator," said Howard.
As for Cassell who had a tree fall on her home, she said she got her power restored at 9:30 Tuesday night.
She's now waiting to meet with an arborist to find out the cost of the damage caused by the fallen tree.
Amber Lee is a reporter with KTVU. Email Amber at Amber.Lee@Fox.com or text/leave message at 510-599-3922. Follow her on Facebook @AmberKTVU, Instagram @AmberKTVU or Twitter @AmberKTVU