Quick storm leaves scores of Modestans in dark for Christmas Eve

More than 24 hours after a falling tree brought down poles and lines Thursday afternoon, Modesto Irrigation District crews were able to restore power to the 150 to 200 customers who spent Christmas Eve and much of Christmas Day without it.

A dozen poles along Coffee Road between Celeste Drive and Floyd Avenue snapped or came crashing down about 2:45 p.m. Christmas Eve after a big wind knocked over a tall cypress tree that fell on power lines just south of Athens Avenue.

MID spokeswoman Melissa Williams said slightly more than 4,000 customers lost power, including Memorial Medical Center. She said within minutes, MID restored power to more than half of those customers by rerouting power through other circuits and power lines. By 3:30 p.m. Christmas Eve, all but the 150 to 200 customers had their power restored, she said.

Memorial used a backup generator briefly before its power was restored, said spokeswoman Catherine Larsen.

The towering cypress tree in the yard of an apartment complex in the 2000 block of Coffee Road toppled into the power lines, causing a chain reaction that brought down or damaged other power poles.

“I heard a big old boom,” said John Sihler, who lives in the complex where the cypress fell. “I looked outside and the wind was blowing like a son of a gun and it was hailing, and then the power shut off.”

Sihler said it took a moment to realize that the tree had fallen into the power lines. “That was very shocking and surprising,” he said.

It was a long and cold Thursday night for Sihler and other residents in the Coffee Road apartment complexes who were among the 150 to 200 MID customers still waiting Friday for their power to be restored. Residents bundled up in several layers of clothing and extra blankets to stay warm during the night.

“It was just a little bit cold, but we were OK,” said Hien Le, who lives with his mother, Tran. He said Friday afternoon that they were coping without electricity, but he worried that not having the power restored by the weekend could be a hardship. “No TV on Sunday,” he said. “that would be a problem. I watch football on Sunday.”

Brad Layson and his family opened their gifts Christmas Eve but had not used many of them. They said 90 percent of the gifts are electronic – such as a karaoke machine and a PlayStation 4 – and need a power source. “It’s such a tease,” said Layson’s sister, Hayley, on Friday.

A storm survey crew from the National Weather Service visited the site Christmas morning. Meteorologist Craig Shoemaker, speaking from the weather service office in Sacramento, said teams are sent out when there are “a significant amount of damage reports” and there’s a possibility of tornado activity. From a look at radar, Shoemaker said, “The storm did exhibit some weak rotation, enough to where we needed to send a team down.” News reports, social media reports and communication with emergency services also factored in the decision.

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Michelle Mead was on the team visiting the Modesto area. “From what we’ve seen thus far and based on eyewitness accounts, we’re not seeing evidence of a tornado. This probably was a straight-line wind event,” she said Friday morning.

The team later Friday went to the Ceres area. The weather service had seen a couple of tweets of fences being blown down there and received a video that appeared to show a funnel cloud, Mead said. Ceres resident Brianna Little tweeted photos of downed fencing and roof damage in the area of Davis Way and Park East Drive.

The weather service storm team did determine that the damage in Ceres was the result of a tornado. Mead said it was an EF-0 tornado, meaning wind speeds were 65 to 85 mph. EF-0 tornadoes typically do light damage, such as to roofs, gutters and siding.

That’s pretty much what her team found in Ceres, Mead said. “We had some damage like pieces of sheet metal thrown about a block away, numerous fences blown over, a magnolia tree with a limb broken off.”

It was a short – less than five minutes – “up-and-down” type of storm that hit about 3 p.m., she said. There was damage at one home, nothing at the next two, then damage at another home, she said. A few houses lost shingles, one had a window broken by a piece of fence.

Some residents were without power briefly after a piece of damaged carport got wrapped around a power line, Mead said. A Turlock Irrigation District crew worked to restore power quickly.

Along Coffee Road in Modesto, as many as 40 MID workers were on the scene making repairs and replacing power poles. They were assisted Thursday and Friday morning by TID workers.

The weight and force of the tree on the small stretch lines created a domino effect, Williams said. Most poles fell toward the street, although one crashed through the roof of a business. The incident created a surreal scene, one probably similar to the aftermath of a tornado.

At a time when Coffee Road would normally be busy, the street was empty with the exception of MID workers, firefighters, police and curious onlookers. Wires and poles sat along the southbound lanes.

“The poles laying in the middle of the street ... I thought it was like Armageddon,” said Kent Salisbury, who was working in an apartment on Coffee Road’s east side when he heard the commotion.

One vehicle heading south on Coffee swerved and ended up hitting a pole before going into the northbound lanes and lightly hitting another vehicle.

There were no reports of injury to the driver, who for fear of the live electrical wires stayed in the vehicle before firefighters deemed it safe for him to exit.

There were no reports of injury to anyone on the street.

This story was originally published December 25, 2015 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Quick storm leaves scores of Modestans in dark for Christmas Eve."