Storm Damage: Scotts Valley home damaged by tree, hundreds of power outages reported
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) Crews are working to remove a tree that landed on a home in Scotts Valley on Tabor Way. Family members tell KION part of the tree landed in their kitchen, but thankfully no one was injured.
"The large tree had split the house in half, and the remaining section also impacted another residence. Wires were down so fire responded immediately," said Sgt. Pascale Wowak with the Scotts Valley Police Department. "The whole street is out of commission for a little bit.” Police are asking people to stay out of the area.
Authorities say the tree fell around 5 p.m. Sunday and they're now able to begin removing it less than 24 hours after.
A power pole was left leaning from the impact and power was out in the area. Crews have to fully remove the tree before PG&E crews can go back in and restore power.
But that's just one of the outages reported across the region.
"It was a very intense storm, lots and lots of rain, and very high winds. So we're seeing outages really across the board, but the Central Coast was hit quite heavily," said Teresa Alvarado, Regional Vice President for Pacific Gas and Electric.
PG&E says their crews are responding to almost 200 outages on the Central Coast, many of them in Santa Cruz County.
"We still have a little over 4,000 customers here on the Central Coast who are without power," said Alvarado. "We are prioritizing those who have had the longest duration.”
PG&E says they have called in crews from areas that didn't see as much impact. But many utilities across the state are also busy from Sunday's storm.
In Boulder Creek, another massive tree came down onto wires on Scenic Way. Crews were out today working to fix the pole.
Two more power poles were snapped by another huge tree on Glen Canyon Rd. near Santa Cruz. PG&E says power might not be restored until Tuesday. As of 6 p.m., crews had not begun removing the tree and power lines were still hanging in the roadway.
Alvarado says that even though the storm is over, people in the area still need to be careful around their homes.
“The land is still shifting, it’s quite saturated, so please be careful. We could see further trees coming down as a result.”
Caleb, who lives in Santa Cruz, also had his power knocked out by a tree Sunday night. He says he was playing Nintendo with his friends when all the lights went out.
"Right as the power went out, the people next door came over because the tree went right in front of their house. They said, 'Oh shoot, a tree crashed right on the road in front of us. We were all in the living room, and we just heard it and we all freaked out,'" said Caleb.
Although it can be frustrating to be without power, PG&E is asking customers to be patient as their crews work to restore power to thousands of people.
