Tornado Hits Central California Town

A tornado touched down three times in the Central Valley on Saturday, ripping roofs off of homes and knocking down trees and power lines.

The storms also spread more rain across parts of Northern and central California, which have been deluged over the past week.

The tornado hit Chowchilla at about 3:20 p.m., damaging homes and an elementary school and temporarily knocking out power to at least 2,800 residents. There were no immediate reports of injuries, authorities said.

Most of the damage was in a fourblock area in the town of about 6,000, some 35 miles north of Fresno.

Eric Crownover said he was in his front yard with a friend when he saw flying debris that looked “like birds.”

“We heard a real loud pitch whistling noise I’ll never forget,” Crownover said. “It was like blowing in a bottle. We saw a roof and trees flying. We ran in the house.”

Longtime resident Sonny Turner said the twister missed his home, but took the roof off of his neighbor’s home and damaged several carports. There was a camper shell on one roof and a 16-foot boat was tossed two blocks into another neighbor’s back yard.

“It made quite a mess. People’s orange trees don’t have any oranges,” Turner said.

A string of Pacific storms has led to the deaths of at least 11 people and caused more than $300 million in flood damage across the state.

Despite the latest storms, most of the flood and mudslide warnings were lifted Saturday.

The federal government has declared 34 of California’s 58 counties disaster areas, making those counties eligible for federal aid. Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday asked that four more counties be added to that list.

Wilson also ordered a special legislative session Thursday to handle flood problems. It would be the seventh special session he called since 1991 to deal with a disaster.

Marin County, where mudslides blocked some roads and damaged homes and public property, was one of the few areas reporting more damage Saturday.

Flood and mudslide warnings were lifted for all of Northern California, except areas near the Russian River.

Dawn O’Connor, a spokeswoman with the state Emergency Services office, said the first priority is ensuring that 35 water systems around the state are decontaminated. Residents have been told to boil water.

Orange County officials closed Newport Bay on Friday after discovering that raw sewage had been leaking into the water for three days.