Modesto Power Outages Likely Caused By Microburst, Not Christmas Eve Tornado
MODESTO (CBS13) — Nearly 200 homes are still without power on Christmas after a dozen utility poles fell on Coffee Road in Modesto.
National Weather Service officials say they were brought down by a microburst, not a tornado.
Coffee Road had what some are calling a catastrophe on Christmas Eve.
"Huge explosion. It sounded like a bomb went off. Everything went black immediately," Brad Layson said.
A large cypress tree fell over into the road, taking out 12 power poles with it. Families woke up to a very cold Christmas morning.
"You can't wake up in the morning and make your coffee or breakfast. Your heat. You're used to it being 75 and now it's 48 inside your house. It's pretty cold," said Joshua Schell.
Modesto Irrigation District had to replace power poles, saying 150 to 200 customers would be without power for much of Christmas.
Not far from Coffee Road, representative from the NWS inspected another large tree that came down on Melrose Avenue.
Despite what appears to be significant property damage, the National Weather Service says this is not the work of a tornado. There were no signs a tornado touched down, and they didn't find any debris in the area.
"It looks like a straight-line wind event or a microburst, which is an area of the storm that collapses and it brings with it a lot of cold air and strong winds," said Michelle Mead.
Homeowners say they're grateful MID workers came out immediately and worked through the night.
"They pretty much kicked butt, rocked it out. they're getting this up," Schell said. "They want everyone to have a good Christmas and get some electricity back."