Residents along Glencannon Drive in Pico Rivera were hoping for rain.
But instead, they fell a tree on Thursday morning and got a tornado that damaged several homes.
The tornado uprooted multiple trees along the path, crashing into cars and homes. Brick walls collapsed in Edgar Reinoso’s backyard, but the rest of his house was relatively untouched by the strong winds.
“I heard it like a big old bomb,” he said.
He looked out the window around 3:15am and he crossed the sky to see the attack of lightning bolts. He then heard the wind breaching his street.
“It was my first tornado,” he said, looking at the collapsed wall. “It was my first time living and it was… quite scary.”
The National Weather Service confirmed that Tornado landed at Pico Rivera early Thursday with gusts of wind up to 85 mph. The tornado formed around 3:15am and traveled about a mile.
Meteorologist Ariel Cohen walked the National Weather Service and the tornado path.
The tornado uprooted multiple trees along the Pico Rivera road, crashing into vehicles and homes.
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The tornado was measured as EF0 and was measured approximately 80 yards wide with the lowest rating on a scale of 0-5. According to Cohen, the tornado is at the top of the lowest rating on the EF scale.
The damage pattern of the tornado coincides with “small, weak, short tornadoes,” Cohen said.
“For a short time, it was still causing damage,” Cohen said.
Cuba Garcia woke up because he thought someone was bumping into his house. However, when he saw the security cameras at home, he noticed that the strong winds had tug the metal canopy in his front yard and flipped over the roof.
“He was stuttering and trying to explain to me what had happened,” said his mother, Dahlia Garcia.
“It was different from something I’ve never seen before,” Cuba Garcia said. The house was relatively unharmed, but several tarps and canopies were infused into the family’s backyard.
A few hours later, Dahlia Garcia walked down the street and asked the city workers’ crew if they could help remove the canopy from the roof.
The workers explained that they couldn’t help as they were part of their property that flew onto the roof.
Cuba Garcia said he would probably have to climb on the roof with him and recruit some friends to break down the upside-down turtle-like structure.
A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said the Pico Rivera Tornado was “still causing damage.”
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“We can experience it in our daily lives and it’s okay, but tornadoes… tornadoes are completely different,” he said.
A large branch fell on top of the bright orange 1972 El Camino by Jesus Velázquez. City workers helped keep his car out of the way as they cut off the damaged pine tree.
Velazquez hopes the tree is gone.
“We’re happy that we’re safe, but we need to complain to the city hall about this,” he said.
Carlos Aguilar’s dog woke him up when the wind seemed to show up outside. He heard a big slap and looked out the window and found a 75-foot pine tree crashing into the garden, with the entrance being slightly missing.
His 2018 Hyundai Elantra wasn’t that lucky and was stuck under a tree for hours on Thursday morning.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Aguilar said.
Pico Rivera city manager Steve Carmona said no injuries have been reported in the city and the majority of property damage is focused on Glencannon Drive.
“There’s a lot of water saturation and we definitely go all over the area and identify the trees that are at risk and remove them,” Carmona said.
Andre Garcia watched the city crew cleared the trees from outside his home on Glencannon Drive.
“I’ve almost heard a loud noise like a train passing by and then there was lightning,” he said. “To be honest, the damage was pretty insane considering it was a low-grade tornado.”
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