5 families displaced, 339,000 customers without power due to ferocious Valley winds
'It was shocking, scary,' one resident said.
MARIPOSA, Calif. (KFSN) -- Toppled trees and downed power lines don't even begin to show the devastation caused by Tuesday's wind storm.
"Some people lost 12 trees on one property and some couldn't even get out of the driveway," said Aubrey Brown, a Mariposa resident.
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Another resident, Mary Moore, said, "We got off lucky compared to other people."
The home that Moore's parents built may have withstood the more than 80 miles per hour gusts, but the neighboring tree split in half, falling on the garage and work shed.
The storm was like nothing she's ever seen having lived in the home her whole life.
"It was shocking, scary," Moore said.
Moore said now they're racing against the clock, to cover the damage that extends into her home as the weekend brings the chance for rain even snow.
Between damage and public safety power shutoffs that the Valley typically sees in the hot summer months, more than 339,000 PG&E customers are without power.
"It's remarkable, the types of damage we're seeing. Typically in a wind storm, we'll see branches fall off of week trees or you'll see other debris being picked up off the ground. In a storm like this we saw healthy trees come down," said Denny Boyles with PG&E.
Many PG&E crews spent Wednesday patrolling to assess the damage, including more than 66,000 feet of powerlines and 121 transformers that all need to be replaced.
The Red Cross is assisting five families now out of their home because of the wind event.
"Some were home fires, some were trees crashing through their homes. Hearing their reports, these folks went through a lot," said Nicole Maul with the Red Cross.
