Wind gusts reaching speeds up to an estimated 50 mph wreaked
havoc on Hollister Monday morning
– uprooting trees, ripping apart buildings and leaving almost
7,000 people without power for parts of the day.
Hollister – Wind gusts reaching speeds up to an estimated 50 mph wreaked havoc on Hollister Monday morning – uprooting trees, ripping apart buildings and leaving almost 7,000 people without power for parts of the day.
The wind picked up around 7am and kept emergency personnel running for several hours. While trees and huge limbs fell on cars and blocked roads, the high winds lifted off a portion of the Department of Motor Vehicles’ carport roof, but no one was injured during storm, according to police and fire authorities.
Hollister Fire Chief Bill Garringer said the department received around 25 calls for service for different trees and fallen wires. Because of the power outages, firefighters also hopped from house to house responding to calls for appliances that shorted out, he said.
“We basically ran around and made sure everyone was safe – but there was no real big emergency,” Garringer said.
The Hollister Police Department reported 23 trees fell down on everything from cars, buildings, power lines and roadways, said Capt. Richard Vasquez.
Hollister Public Works employees didn’t even take a lunch break in order to clean up the debris scattered all over town, said Ray Rojas, street supervisor.
The phone started ringing around 7am and calls didn’t subside until about 2pm, Rojas said. The street department alone received nearly 30 calls for service, he said. Most of the calls were from trees or tree limbs on cars or in roadways, but Rojas said high winds creating clean-up chaos is “normal if we have a good storm.”
None of the agencies had monetary damages immediately available to report.
Pacific Gas and Electric reported 22 different storm-related power outages in Hollister, with the largest hitting around 7:20am – leaving 5,300 customers in southwest Hollister and most of downtown without power for about three hours, said PG&E spokesman Brian Swanson. Repair workers had the power lines fixed and electricity back on for 6,950 customers, both commercial and residential, by about 10:30am, he said. However, about 415 customers in the areas of Fairview, Santa Ana Valley and Sunnyslope roads were left powerless until Monday evening, he said.
Swanson said the outages were scattered throughout the city. Some of them stemmed from downed wires – either by falling tree branches or blowing wind – but most of the outages are still under investigation, Swanson said.
About 1,100 of San Juan Bautista’s approximately 1,600 residents were left without power due to eight separate outages that started around noon and lasted into Monday evening, Swanson said.
San Juan City Manager Larry Cain said the city, notorious for its dilapidated infrastructure, didn’t suffer any problems with the water system and got off easy with only a few downed tree limbs.
“The wind’s blowing garbage around because today’s garbage day, but there’s no big problems,” Cain said. “Everything’s OK in San Juan.”
Although there are no official wind reporting sites in Hollister, gusts up to 48 mph were reported at the Pinnacles, said Bob Benjamin with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
Benjamin said a strong weather system with low pressure moved down out of the gulf of Alaska and collided with the high pressure system that was providing Hollister with nice weather the past couple of weeks. That impact created a storm system with very high winds, and the weather will be more naughty than nice throughout the week and into the weekend, he said.
“People will feel it a little breezier than normal, but not anywhere near what was experienced this (Monday) morning,” Benjamin said. “There will be some sunny breaks but it will be intermitted. Unsettled is the best word to describe this week’s weather.”
Anyone anxious to take care of some post-holiday DMV business had to wait until noon on Monday, because the powerful morning winds blew the carport facade on top of the southern part of the building clear off. The actual roof of the DMV was not affected and it was business as usual in the afternoon, said DMV manager Cara Vanderford.
Vanderford found the debris in the parking lot when she arrived at work at 7:30am. The state will foot the bill for the unknown amount of damage caused to the top of the building, and repairs will take a couple weeks, she said.
“It looked a whole lot worse than it was,” she said. “It was good it happened before anyone was here. Our parking lot could have been full of people. It could have been bad.”
The California Highway Patrol secured the building until a state inspector from Sacramento made it down to give employees the go-ahead to reopen. No other buildings in that area sustained damage, and why that portion of roof received the brunt of the damage was simply bad luck, Garringer said.
“A high wind caught it just right,” the fire chief said. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. Rain’s not getting on your driving record.”
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or em*******@fr***********.com
