Live Updates: Bay Area recovers from devastating Level 3 storm damage, power outages

Emergency management officials are reminding people to take the National Weather Service alerts seriously.

With downed trees and smashed cars, Saturday's storm brought along with it the first-ever tornado warning for San Francisco.

It comes just one week after the Bay Area braced itself amid a tsunami warning.

"In one week, a Tsunami Warning and a Tornado Warning. That's pretty remarkable, in terms of how often we get those," said San Francisco State Professor Emeritus John Monteverdi, who studies severe storms.

He says with climate change, comes more atmospheric rivers.

"That's the way we expect climate change to manifest. With storms that produce more rainfall and intense rainfall, and embedded in those bands can be circulations like the one that resulted in the tornado warning," Monteverdi said.

Many people in San Francisco got woken up by an alert for a Tornado Warning and were left wondering if it was real and what should they do.

"I was confused I woke up and never heard of anything happening in this area, so I was confused more than anything," said Kaylee Smith.

Some even challenged the severity of these types of warnings.

"I've been a Bay Area resident my whole life. We've gotten a bunch of warnings for other weather-related things, and I feel like nothing serious has ever really happened," said San Francisco resident Jessica King.

Emergency management officials are reminding people to take the National Weather Service alerts seriously.

"It's not fun to be woken up at 5:50 a.m., and it's alarming, and it's unsettling, but the reality is, in San Francisco we are trending toward more frequent extreme weather events," said Jackie Thornhill, deputy communications officer for San Francisco's Department of Emergency Management. "These alerts are based on very objective criteria and weather modeling, and they are only sent when there is a significant probability of a life-safety hazard happening. And the scenes that you've seen throughout the city today exemplify those life-safety hazards."

And as for incidents like Saturday morning's alert, emergency officials are directing people to the basement.

"We totally understand that in San Francisco, a lot of people don't have access to a basement. So, in those situations, in the event of a future tornado warning, the next best thing is an interior room away from windows on the lowest floor possible," Thornhill said.

The storm that barreled through the Bay Area on Saturday disrupted power to almost 31,000 PG&E customers, the utility said.

By 9:30 p.m. Saturday, 21,663 were still out, spokesman JD Guidi said in a press release.

The most heavily affected area was the North Bay, which saw 19,906 interruptions from tree limbs and other debris falling into power lines and damaging equipment, according to the utility.

The company said 698 customers lost power in San Francisco, 4,657 on the Peninsula, 4,605 in the East Bay and 1,121 in the South Bay.

At the height of storm, about 216,000 customers were without power across the utility's service area in northern and central California, PG&E said in the press release.

"PG&E crews and resources are responding safely and as quickly as possible to storm-related outages," the utility said. "There are approximately 5,700 personnel involved in our storm response."

"This response includes staging power poles, powerlines, transformers and other electric equipment in key locations throughout our service area to restore power to affected areas safely and as quickly as possible."

BAY AREA POWER OUTAGE MAP

The storm that barreled through the Bay Area on Saturday disrupted power to almost 31,000 PG&E customers, the utility said.

The most heavily affected area was the North Bay, which had 19,906 interruptions from tree limbs and other debris falling into power lines and damaging equipment, spokesman JD Guidi said in a press release.

The utility said 698 customers lost power in San Francisco, 4,657 on the Peninsula, 4,605 in the East Bay and 1,121 in the South Bay.

At the height of storm, about 216,000 customers were without power across the utility's service area in northern and central California, PG&E said in the press release..

"PG&E crews and resources are responding safely and as quickly as possible to storm-related outages," the utility said. "There are approximately 5,700 personnel involved in our storm response."

"This response includes staging power poles, powerlines, transformers and other electric equipment in key locations throughout our service area to restore power to affected areas safely and as quickly as possible."

BAY AREA POWER OUTAGE MAP

In a preliminary report released Saturday evening, the National Weather Service categorized the tornado that touched down in Scotts Valley in the afternoon as an EF1 "moderate" twister.

Authorities said that about six cars were flipped. Debris was thrown around, which did significant damage to businesses and cars parked along the tornado's path. PG&E power lines and poles were torn down. A massive tree was ripped up from its roots and landed on part of the middle school.

Police and fire had to help evacuate people trapped by down power lines in parking lots. Authorities said in all, five people were injured, but none with life-threatening injuries.