Scotts Valley officials say tornado caused more than $100K in damages; city to vote on emergency declaration

Scotts Valley officials will vote to declare a local emergency Wednesday after a tornado tore through a bustling commercial corridor, damaging a mobile home park, wastewater treatment plant and 15 traffic signals, toppling a tree onto a middle school and forcing several businesses to close during a busy holiday shopping weekend. 

The tornado, which the National Weather Service said reached wind speeds of up to 90 mph, closed a stretch of Mount Hermon Road on Saturday afternoon. The road reopened and power was restored to the area by Sunday. All the traffic signals that were torn down by the tornado were restored and functioning by Monday afternoon, said Scotts Valley Vice Mayor Derek Timm.

“We were extremely lucky that the storm hit where it did – if it had been 100 feet in any direction other it would have hit our businesses,” he said. “We’re feeling very fortunate as a community that it wasn’t worse and that we didn’t have any loss of life.”

Timm said it’s too soon to know the full extent of the damage and when everything will be back to normal, but the current rough estimate for the cost of destruction is more than $100,000. The vote to declare a local emergency on Wednesday is so the city can access state funding needed for repairs. 

The Mount Hermon Road area likely suffered the most damage, he said, but the city recently learned that the Scotts Valley wastewater treatment plant, located about 2 miles north of where the tornado struck on Mount Hermon Road, also sustained damage. 

Timm said the storm also blew off part of the roof of a unit in Spring Lakes Park – a mobile home park – and a “massive, several-hundred-year-old tree” fell onto a building at Scott Valley Middle School. 

About 40 students and two teachers were rehearsing a production of “The Lion King” in the school’s theater Saturday afternoon when the large tree fell onto the science building on the campus. 

Principal Michelle Menchaca said she was called almost immediately after the tree fell and quickly made her way to the school. The tree, which isn’t on school property, fell across Bean Creek Road and landed on the corner of the science building’s roof. It hit a structural beam and didn’t break through the roof but moderately damaged it. 

“Certainly there would have been a lot more damage to the building itself if the tree hadn’t hit the beam,” Menchaca said. “We’re fortunate nobody was in that building. Nobody was hurt, and, of course, it hit where it did. It’s going to be a big project to fix, but it could have been a lot worse.”

Menchaca said just one of the six classrooms in the building was affected by the damage to the roof. The classroom looks almost completely undamaged except for the ceiling in the corner where the tree landed. Staff noticed a leak in the classroom’s ceiling and placed a bucket under it. The teacher relocated all of his belongings – which weren’t damaged – over the weekend to an unused neighboring classroom that was empty. 

“They got it done in a day,” she said. “He is settled in a new classroom and you wouldn’t even know the difference.” 

Menchaca said the school district’s insurance carrier already sent staff out to survey the damage and the school started talking with the Department of the State Architect, which reviews and approves plans for school construction projects. She said it’s too soon to know how long it will take to fix the damage, or how much it will cost. 

“The ball is rolling, everybody’s aware,” she said. “And I think because of the situation, they are all ready to expedite this for us.”

The drama class continued to rehearse, singing and dancing in the theater to prepare for their performance in February, she added. 

Meanwhile, store owners Dedra Bennett and her husband had a front-row seat for the tornado. The couple owns two shops on Mount Hermon Road – Bennett was at Zinnia’s Gift Boutique when the tornado hit and her husband was at their other store, Home by Zinnia’s. 

“It was crazy. Surreal,” she said. 

Bennett said there were about 30 to 40 people in the boutique when someone ran inside the store just as the tornado was barrelling down Mount Hermon Road. One of the customers held the door shut and the group watched in awe from inside as the funnel cloud passed by. 

“It was extremely loud,” she said. “It sounded of trees coming down, hitting roofs, power lines. Even that sharper crackling sound. Then it was gone, and the power went out.” 

Bennett and her staff tried for the next hour or so to help customers with their purchases, but with no power, the store’s wifi wasn’t working and the darkness setting into the late afternoon made it hard to work. So they decided to close around 3 p.m. 

Bennett said she’s thankful the storm didn’t cause more serious injuries or damages. While her store was unscathed, she estimates the businesses lost $20,000 to $30,000 from closing for half of Saturday. 

“We could have lost five times that if there had been damage to the buildings,” she said. “We’re very fortunate.” 

She added: “We lost about half a day on one of the busiest Saturdays of the year.” 

The store reopened Sunday morning and Bennett spent the day answering calls from customers wanting to know how the business was doing, if it was open and if it was possible to get to Scotts Valley. Bennett said that Sunday and Monday, Mount Hermon Road felt as though it still hadn’t recovered as the streets were emptier than usual and the traffic lights were yet to be fixed. 

One of her employees remarked that tornados are so rare in the area that they didn’t know what to do to keep safe during such an extreme weather event. 

“One of my staff members said, ‘Hey, we don’t have ‘tornado what-to-do’s,” she recalled. “This is all new.” 

The National Weather Service classified the tornado as an EF-1, which has winds speeds ranging from 86 to 110 mph and is capable of causing moderate damage. “Tornadoes in [California] are actually not that uncommon,” the agency posted on Twitter, adding that the state sees about 11 tornados each year. 

Timm, Scotts Valley’s vice mayor, said that the city has been reviewing its emergency operations manual for the past several months and will now consider tornados as a possibility. 

“We hope that this is just a highly unusual event,” he said. 

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