A powerful storm system and tornado brought chaos to parts of the Grover Beach community Wednesday afternoon.
“All the destruction was shocking,” said Gary Soto of Grover Beach.
Soto returned home from work to find his home and yard damaged.
“I got to my house and the fence fell over, my blinds went up on my house and I lost some shingles on top,” Soto said.
Soto has lived in the Grover Beach community since 1995 and says he's never seen a storm this intense.
Aaron Hernandez lives nearby and says he noticed the storm by the sound of heavy rainfall.
“I kind of realized as it started hitting, it escalated from, 'OK, that's heavy rain,' to 'Oh, wow, that wind is really kicking up,' to 'OK, this is no longer a normal kind of storm',” Hernandez said.
He says it all happened quickly.
“I looked out the window and started to see my fence was going back and forth sort of doing a serpentine with the wind. Our avocado tree was kind of doing a whirlwind,” Hernandez continued.
Once the storm had passed, Hernandez went outside to check on the damage.
“We had a powerline that's down in front of our house, so I went outside with my neon vest and tried to direct traffic making sure everyone is staying safe and staying away from the down powerline,” Hernandez said.
It was a team effort with neighbors, first responders, PG&E crews and more all helping.
“I had to organize everything because it was a safety hazard on the sidewalk because all the fencing fell on the sidewalk. A lot of great people out here and I'm proud to live here because of it,” Hernandez concluded.
National Weather Service officials on Thursday confirmed an EF-1 tornado was responsible for leaving the trail of damage.
