A tornado swept through a suburb of Los Angeles, California, United States, on Wednesday (22), removing roofs from a cluster of office buildings and scattering debris across the area. One person was injured.
The National Weather Service sent crews to assess the damage in Montebello and later confirmed that the tornado hit the area late in the morning. “It’s definitely not common in the area,” said Rose Schoenfeld of the Met Office.
One person was injured and taken to a hospital in Montebello. But Alex Gilman, a city spokesman, did not elaborate on the severity of the victim’s injuries.
“It got really loud. Things were flying everywhere,” said Michael Turner, who was in a warehouse in the area at the time of the tornado. “The whole plant turned into one big dump for a minute. So when the dust settled, the place was a mess.”
No one was hurt, but gas lines were cut, fire extinguishers and skylights were broken, and a 465-square-meter section of the roof “just disappeared.”
“I’ve been in California since 1965. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Turner said.
Debris was scattered over more than one apartment building in the city. The fire department said inspectors inspected 17 buildings in the area, and marked 11 of them uninhabitable. Several cars were also damaged.
The rainy season
This rare phenomenon came at the end of a stormy season that has ravaged the region in recent days. On Tuesday, two people were killed after flash floods and high winds lashed the San Francisco Bay Area.
The weather service also sent assessment teams to the town of Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County, where it confirmed that a tornado hit a trailer park on Tuesday, with gusts of up to 120 kilometers per hour that destroyed about 25 homes.
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