Family Witnesses Tornado Touchdown
STOCKTON (CBS13) - A CBS13 viewer captured the tornado as it roared through San Joaquin County on Wednesday, damaging power lines, roofing and Valentine Gutierrez's shop.
"I've seen the shop and it went into the air and a cloud hit it, demolished it into pieces," said Gutierrez.
The tornado touched down just feet from his home off West Howard Road. He saw a large cloud spinning outside his window. It flipped a semitrailer.
Gutierrez grabbed his family and took cover.
"[I] got my family and my kids and hit the ground. I really thought we were dead," said Gutierrez.
When the cloud dissipated he went outside to check out the damage. He couldn't believe what Mother Nature had done.
"There is a couple of roof tiles that are missing. My satellite dish is all demolished," said Gutierrez.
And the wind speed of this tornado is nothing to take lightly, up to 110 miles an hour.
"We base this pretty much on the fact that the barn had been completely flattened," said Drew Peterson, National Weather Service.
The Gutierrez family needing no confirmation of just how big this spring storm was; they lived it, and live to tell about it after a scary few seconds of wondering whether they'd make it.
"I really just thought we were dead, a little scary," said Gutierrez.
