A tornado touched down in the northern California town of Scotts Valley near Santa Cruz on Saturday afternoon, overturning cars and toppling power lines, authorities said. Several people were injured, firefighters said.
The incident happened around 1:40 p.m. around the 200 block of Mount Hermon Drive. Scotts Valley Police initially posted an alert on social media advising residents to avoid the area following a multi-vehicle crash that caused several power lines to be downed and completely blocked the road in all areas. directions.
Scotts Valley Police Department
Police later released an update saying witnesses reported it was not an accident “but rather a possible tornado” that touched down near the Target store at 270 Mount Hermon Drive “and threw several cars off the road.”
The Scotts Valley Fire Protection District told CBS News that four to five people were injured during the weather event, suffering minor to moderate injuries. At least two of those people were taken to hospitals.
Around twenty cars were damaged, firefighters said.
Scotts Valley is a small town about six miles north of Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz County and a short distance from State Highway 17.
The National Weather Service had issued a warning of severe thunderstorms in the area shortly before the tornado.
A later article on X by the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office confirmed that a tornado had occurred based on “video, photos, first-hand accounts and radar signatures.”
The post says an NWS investigative team will investigate the incident further to provide a classification.
The tornado was just the latest extreme wind event linked to the powerful storm that moved across Northern California overnight. THE first tornado warning in San Francisco was issued by the National Weather Service early Saturday morning, shortly before 6 a.m., alarming residents with a cellphone alert that woke many people, according to reports posted on social media.
Although this tornado did not occur, high winds caused impacts throughout the region, including town-wide power outage in Novato, North Bay And a complete closure of Interstate 580 in both directions at the San Joaquin-Alameda county line after a multi-vehicle collision involving a big rig due to high winds.
