Rare Twister Rips Through Pico Rivera Neighborhood

Eric Carlos has lived in the Los Angeles area all of his life, and he has been through plenty of earthquakes. But a tornado? The 19-year-old said he didn’t think California even had twisters until he saw one whip through his Pico Rivera neighborhood Tuesday night.

No one was hurt. But the rare tornado caused thousands of dollars in damage as it ripped through a two-block section of Zola Avenue about 9:20 p.m.

Carlos said he watched helplessly from his front door as trees were uprooted and neighbors’ cars were crushed. Three homes sustained minor damage.

“It was weird,” he said Wednesday. “It was like something you only see on the ‘Wizard of Oz.’ ”

Funnel clouds occasionally form in the Los Angeles area, most often as waterspouts sighted off the coast. But it has been several years since a destructive twister has occurred, meteorologists say.

“We do not have them here like they do in Kansas or Texas,” said Art Lessard,

chief meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. “But we do get them. It’s not unusual when the air is cold like this.”

Lessard said the worst twister in the Los Angeles area in recent memory occurred in 1983, when a tornado whipped up the Harbor Freeway and touched down, damaging the Convention Center and several other downtown buildings. But usually the funnel clouds stay above ground, he said.

Carlos said the Pico Rivera tornado sounded like a caravan of trucks driving through the neighborhood at full speed. The twister was about two stories high and “skipped” down the street, finally lifting at the end of the block, he said.

Authorities said it smashed two cars, sent roof shingles flying hundreds of feet, uprooted trees, broke a window and knocked down power lines, leading to a brief interruption in water service to some parts of the city as electrical pumps shut down.

On Wednesday morning, stunned residents in the neighborhood southeast of Los Angeles began cleaning up the mess.

“I’ve lost my avocado tree,” Joe Moisa said, looking at the uprooted tree in his back yard. “I raised it from a seed, and now it’s gone.”

Branches and rubble were scattered across Moisa’s lawn. A picnic umbrella was upside-down in a corner by the back wall. A child’s jungle gym was toppled nearby. In the front yard, city workers chopped down a damaged tree, turning it into firewood.

Moisa said he was home celebrating his birthday with several dozen friends and family members when the tornado hit.

“It was scary, especially when you have a house full of people,” he said.

Moisa’s wife, Rowena, added: “I’ll never forget that sound. It was like a roar--sort of like an earthquake, but different. It’s a sound you can’t explain but will never forget.”

Ray Nieto, who lives down the street from the Moisas, stared sadly at his pickup truck and car, smashed by an uprooted tree.

“It all happened so fast, in three or four seconds,” he said. “At first I heard thunder and then hail. After that I heard a big thump. I thought a plane crashed at first. When I looked outside, I knew something else had happened. Why we had a tornado here, I don’t know. There’s an open field (several blocks away). Why here?”