Rollercoaster Bay Area storm brings hail, downs trees

Matt Keller Image
ByMatt Keller KGO logo
Thursday, February 18, 2016
Rollercoaster Bay Area storm brings hail, downs trees
It seems like parts of the Bay Area have been on a weather rollercoaster Thursday morning. There's been rain, downed trees and even hail.

CUPERTINO, Calif. (KGO) -- It seems like parts of the Bay Area have been on a weather rollercoaster Thursday morning. There's been rain, downed trees and even hail.

Just when the rain seemed like it was going to be over, a shower showed up in Los Gatos.

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It was more than a little shower at the Hayward airport around 5 a.m. Thursday. Ground level video of hail from Sky7 HD was taken because the helicopter couldn't even take off in weather like this.

Trees and limbs were also falling.

One on Herriman Avenue in Saratoga hit some power lines. PG&E battled the elements to get the power back on for 281 customers.

It was a scary night to get through for the Sampath family in Cupertino.

"My dad was totally in panic mode and was like oh, you know what, there are flames behind the yard and he didn't know what was going on," Prassnitha Sampath said.

Sampath's parents are visiting from India and were home with her kids when the storm swept through.

Wind and rain pushed their next door neighbor's tree into the power lines, sparking several explosions and flames.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but more than 400 customers were without power overnight.

PHOTOS: Rain, storms hit Bay Area during 2016 El Nino season

Eventually, PG&E arrived on the scene.

A landscaping crew cut down the tree and power was restored Thursday morning.

A rainbow appeared - a great story to bring home to India.

PG&E reports there are still some widespread outages, although it's not impacting a lot of customers.

There are 13 in Los Gatos and 7 in San Jose.

The storm proved to be too much for a tree in San Francisco's Seacliff neighborhood. It fell onto a car's hood, blocking the street at Lake Street and 29th Avenue.

SFPD directed traffic around the mess.

Meanwhile, a massive tree brought down power lines in the Oakland Hills. Video shows the tree, which damaged one car and blocked three lanes of traffic.

No one was hurt and PG&E crews are working to restore power.

A tree also fell in Alamo on Roundhill Road. Crews are currently chopping up the tree, which brought down power lines.

PG&E repaired those first so the scene was safe.

There are 220 customers in the South Bay without power, 150 in the North Bay, 80 in the East Bay and 50 on the Peninsula.

There are no outages in San Francisco.

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