Cleanup crews struggle with massive tree that fell on apartment

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (KGO) -- The latest storm caused more headaches for people with downed trees, crushed apartments, broken water mains and flooding.

In Santa Clara there has been a problem with cleanup.

"Before I knew it, it was like zoom!" said Elizabeth Smith, explaining what she heard after a massive tree came smashing to the ground.

"I was like oh my God, oh my God there's nobody around! For a complete 3 to five minutes there was nobody around!" she said.

The huge trunk slammed onto the roof of the apartment complex and took out everything in its path. There were no reports of injury.

"It was unreal. I've never seen anything like that," explained Smith.

Crews believe the saturated soil is to blame. The root system weakened by the extended drought was no match for the sudden wave of heavy rain.

The overnight storm created issues in Menlo Park as well.

Crews worked through the night to repair a main break that cut off water to dozens and sent waves of thick heavy sludge rushing into low lying homes.

"We came out and literally our garage was up a foot. It was up a foot," said Beth Thurston of Menlo Park.

The pipes are fixed but there are still problems. Homeowners will have to wait before they can comfortably drink straight from the tap as crews are flushing the pipes with water and air.


One resident summed it up like this: "We all needed the rain. It's been good that way. It's too bad this happened but we needed it. I'm not blaming anyone."


PHOTOS: Last week's storm flooded roadways, leaving drivers stranded


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