Deadly ‘bomb cyclone’ topples trees, cuts power in San Francisco Bay Area

A deadly “bomb cyclone” storm hammered the San Francisco Bay Area with high winds, fallen trees, power outages and evacuation warnings, authorities reported.

The storm, which hit Wednesday, Jan. 4, and continued overnight, spawned wind gusts of up to 101 mph in the area, the National Weather Service reported.

Nearly 80,000 people in the Bay Area were without power as of 6:45 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 5, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. told SFGate.

In all, about 156,000 people are without power in California, utilities told the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services as of 7:30 a.m.

In Occidental, near Santa Rosa, a redwood toppled onto a house overnight and killed a baby inside, firefighters reported Thursday morning.

In Fairfield, a 19-year-old woman died after her vehicle hydroplaned on standing water and crashed into a pole at about 8:30 a.m. Jan. 4, city police said in a news release.

The bodies of at least three people have been found in floodwaters in south Sacramento County following storms on Saturday, Dec. 31, while another man was killed the same day in Santa Cruz when a tree collapsed at Lighthouse Field State Beach.

Across the Bay Area, downed trees snarled traffic and brought down power lines, KRON reported. At one point fallen trees blocked a San Francisco cable car.

Wind also knocked over a gas station canopy in Daly City, KTVU reported.

“There are numerous downed trees and power outages,” Roger Gass, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, told SFGate. “We’re trying to keep up with all the reports, and we can’t keep up.”

More storms are anticipated, meteorologists said.

An evacuation order has been issued for a 30-mile stretch of the Russian River as an “atmospheric river” brings more storms to the state, The Press Democrat reported.

This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 7:51 AM with the headline "Deadly ‘bomb cyclone’ topples trees, cuts power in San Francisco Bay Area."