Capt. Jayson Rutherford, of the Scotts Valley Police Department, said six cars were overturned and another 10 or so were damaged by the twister reported at 1:40pm.
“Looking at it overall, we’re extremely blessed,” he said, adding there was no major damage to structures. “Were very fortunate. All this stuff can be easily mopped-up. Nobody’s put out for the holidays. No one lost their life.”
CLEANUP – A tow truck works to right an SUV as first responders check to see if anyone else was injured. (Drew Penner / Press Banner)
Two people were taken by ambulance to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, and one was transported to Dominican Hospital. Two people said they’d take themselves to a medical facility for treatment.
“Most of it was cuts and bruising,” Rutherford said. “Nothing life-threatening.”
One of the victims was a Cal Fire firefighter who was on duty.
Elie Colby, 14, of Ben Lomond, was studying for finals in Starbucks with her friends when the funnel cloud rolled through.
“The door ripped open,” she said. “We didn’t understand what was happening.”
Evelyn Carter, a 14-year-old from Felton—who’d been deep into her biology review—said one of the doors was torn from its hinges.
TWISTING – Still from a video of the tornado shot from the Starbucks at 260 Mt. Hermon Rd. in Scotts Valley. (Submitted)
“They told us to leave,” she said. “We all walked outside and the sun came out—which was weird.”
That’s when they saw the chaos of overturned vehicles and first responders arriving to care for the casualties.
Braden Ramsey, another Felton 14-year-old, said the whole thing was a bit crazy.
“It was just surprising,” he said.
Chris Wakeland, the Scotts Valley McDonald’s store manager on duty at the time, said the incident happened around 1:45pm.
“I saw trees flying through the air…not just little ones,” he said, adding the ground began shaking. “It looked like it was probably circling around our store.”
Wakeland told customers to remain inside. Some held the doors closed.
“I’ve never been in a tornado,” he said. “I never expected one to be happening in Scotts Valley.”
Matt Mehle, a National Weather Service meteorologist for the Bay Area / Monterey Bay region, said based on radar imagery, pictures and videos, and eyewitness accounts, they’d determined a tornado touched down in Scotts Valley at about 1:40pm.
Initial estimates suggest it may have been active for 5-10 minutes, he added.
“We had a pretty dynamic situation,” he said, explaining the atmosphere had the perfect ingredients for a twister—lift, moisture and instability. “This is what we would refer to as a ‘low topped supercell.'”
While records indicate, before this, there were two tornados in Santa Cruz County in 2019, as well as earlier twisters in 2012, 2001, 1998, 1986 and 1965 (meaning this would be the 8th), none of those appear to have impacted Scotts Valley.
That sounds about right to Lisa Rosato, 54, who’s lived in Felton for more than two decades.
She and her 21-year-old daughter Molly Donahue, just back from Berklee College of Music, had exited the Starbucks drive-thru, and were sitting in their SUV eating their meal.
As Rosato gazed out at the field that once housed the Skypark airport, it suddenly began to come alive.
“It became very apparent very quickly that we were about to be in the middle of a tornado,” Rosato said. “Everything started to swirl.”
In the air around them they saw tree branches, debris and street signage getting sucked up and spit out.
“It is a tornado and it’s coming right at us,” Rosato said. “Cover your face!”
Donahue was terrified.
“Mom,” she said. “Drive away.”
Rosato opted to stay put.
“It was split-second decision,” she said. “I saw the tornado touch down.”
She said a relatively small funnel reached the ground near the edge of town and seemed to travel away from Felton.
“It was coming straight down Mount Hermon Road,” she said. “When it got past the Starbucks, it turned. It was coming at us.”
Donahue said she didn’t really process what was happening.
“I just had faith in something that it wasn’t going to hit us,” she said. “I just had some sort of peace in my mind.”
Rosato said the twister shifted course, continuing down Mount Hermon towards Taco Bell. Then, they were able to gather their thoughts, alongside others in the parking lot.
“We were all just saying, ‘Oh my God! That was like a holiday miracle that happened right now,'” she recalled. “It felt like a movie.”
Jen Ryder was even closer. She was stuck in that Starbucks line with her husband and two small daughters.
“All of a sudden, it got really gusty and we were like, ‘Whoa, this is weird,'” she said. “I honestly thought we were all going to die. I was so scared. I’ve never seen anything like that.”
While her two-year-old didn’t seem to register what was happening. Her five-year-old was scared, and called out for her.
Debris smashed into the side of their vehicle.
“Our car’s getting rocked around,” Ryder recalled. “And then there’s nothing you can do.”
At first, she couldn’t help but think, Why did I have to come to Scotts Valley to get that Facebook Marketplace item right now?
But then, she realized, had the Starbucks employees been able to make drinks at a slightly faster rate, she—and her family—would’ve been in the direct path of the actual tornado (because exiting traffic has to take a right and make a U-turn to head back towards Santa Cruz).
She says, maybe someone was looking out for them.
“Our car was unharmed,” she said. “We were all unharmed.”
Over at Bruno’s Bar and Grill, an employee in the parking lot and one upstairs both saw the funnel cloud and told owner Rogelio Guzman about it.
He called his wife Joanne Purdy Guzman, who was able to watch their front door security camera footage back.
“It started getting darker and darker, and then you could see it forming,” she said. “I was shocked at first, because that kind of thing doesn’t happen here. Then, my immediate emotion after that was fear. Like, I hope someone didn’t get hurt.”
She did see a warning on TV that a severe storm could hit Scotts Valley—about 10-15 minutes before it happened. But, she says, there was no mention of a possible tornado.
Mehle said the weather agency did issue a tornado warning for San Francisco earlier in the day, and a thunderstorm alert for the region including Scotts Valley at 1:25pm.
He added that because it was only a small “cell” of a weather event, it quickly passed, resulting in blue sky patches around the same time as the twister.
