Tornado touches down in Scotts Valley, closing Mount Hermon Road

Quick Take

A tornado touched down in Scotts Valley on Saturday afternoon, damaging cars and bringing down trees and utility poles, and closing Mount Hermon Road to traffic.

The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado hit Scotts Valley at approximately 1:40 p.m. Saturday. Meteorologist Matt Mehle told Lookout that initially, the weather service picked up “weak rotations” in a storm system it was tracking, and hesitated to declare that a tornado hit the city until it saw reports on social media showing a funnel cloud twisting through Scotts Valley. Mehle said the agency was sending a team to survey the area.

Scotts Valley Police Department Capt. Scott Garner said he couldn’t believe it when he was notified. He’s never heard of a tornado hitting the area in his nearly 28 years working in the region.

“When I first got the call about the tornado touching down in Scotts Valley I thought I was being pranked,” he said.

As soon as he realized it was real, he got on the road to head to the scene.

Garner said five people were injured. Three were transported to area medical centers while two took themselves in for medical evaluation. No one was killed and “no life-threatening injuries were reported back to us, so that’s great news,” he said.

Garner added that in addition to the injuries, there was “significant property damage” that included multiple vehicles turned over and a large tree that landed on a structure at Scotts Valley Middle School.

He said businesses along Mount Hermon Road took the brunt of the damage, but it was too soon to estimate the costs as “the damage is still being assessed.”

“There was a lot of debris in the area,” he said. “I don’t know how far it went.”

Mount Hermon Road remained closed Saturday afternoon between Scotts Valley Drive and Lockewood Lane.

Courtesy of Chelsie Wiget

Rawley Bushman was on his way with his wife and three kids to watch “Moana 2” at the CineLux theater when they stopped first to get candy at Dollar Tree next to Target. Bushman waited in the car while his family members went inside.

Bushman noticed the rain was stopping and starting. The wind was blowing so strongly that it began rocking his large Toyota Sequoia SUV. And it had started to hail. “Then it just kind of exploded from there,” he said.

He looked up from his phone, saw the debris flying around and began to record the scene as it unfolded. Bushman saw the tornado forming in the outer area of the shopping center’s parking lot, near Mount Hermon Road – about 100 yards from where he was parked. Trees were being pulled from their roots, stop signs were flattened to the ground. Six cars away from where Bushman was parked, he saw a vehicle flip over.

“It almost didn’t feel real, because we’re in Scotts Valley, California, and I grew up in Santa Cruz,” he said. “I’ve never been through a tornado.”

He estimated that the whole thing lasted under two minutes. Bushman said he didn’t think he was in danger, but he was shaken. After he watched the tornado move toward Highway 17 and die out, he ran to find his family inside Dollar Tree, where people were holding the doors closed.

His wife and kids were in shock. “We stayed in the parking lot for a while,” Bushman said. “The whole community rallied together – everyone was out of their cars, picking up trees and helping the people that were in the cars that were flipped over. The community is pretty awesome in Scotts Valley.”

Sebastian Tumbale, a server at Bruno’s Bar and Grill in Scotts Valley, was working Saturday afternoon when he went upstairs and looked out towards the parking lot. What he saw was “crazy,” he said.

“The winds started picking up really fast and I quickly saw a tornado form,” he said. “There were tree branches flying through the air. It was like ‘The Wizard of Oz.'”

Two cars, included a Cal Fire vehicle, overturned along Mount Hermon Road on Saturday afternoon. Credit: Handout
Vehicles flipped over along Mount Hermon Road on Saturday afternoon. Credit: Handout
Emergency vehicles respond to flipped cars along Mount Hermon Road in Scotts Valley. Credit: Via Chelsie Wiget
Cars were turned over along Mount Hermon Road in Scotts Valley after the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down in the city around 1:40 p.m. on Saturday. Credit: Via Chelsie Wiget
Image of what appears to be a funnel cloud captured on the security camera of Bruno’s Bar and Grill in Scotts Valley Saturday. Credit: Bruno's Bar and Grill

Tumbale said that the funnel cloud made its way toward the restaurant, but changed directions before dying down after a few minutes. The restaurant rushed to find footage of the tornado captured by its security cameras. “I’ve never seen something like that in Santa Cruz,” Tumbale said. “And I’ve lived here my whole life.”