Powerful wind and rainstorms pummeled parts of Northern California, dropping nine inches of rain and causing enough flooding and mudslides so that entire house were swept away and destroyed.
On Mount Lincoln, near Lake Tahoe, wind gusts came in on national Weather Service gauges at 147 miles per hour, CBS News reported. And on the West Coast, between central California and running north to Washington, several houses in the somewhat aptly named town of Washaway Beach were actually swept into the flood waters.
“It was hanging barely on the edge yesterday and now it’s completely over,” said Tom Peterson, a local homeowner who watched his house topple into the waters, CBS News reported. “So it’s a done deal.”
San Francisco suffered damage, too, when winds blew trees into power lines and left hundreds without power. Hundreds of thousands more in the Bay Area were without power, too. And in Santa Cruz, one 80-foot-tall tree actually fell on top of an elementary school student, leaving him trapped for several minutes. CBS News reported he escaped death but likely had at least a broken arm.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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