Possible tornado touches down east of Los Angeles
A possible tornado touched down in Montebello, California, on Wednesday morning, ripping the roof off an industrial building. Officials say one person was injured in the incident.
The latest storm battering Southern California has brought heavy winds and rain to the area. On Wednesday morning, KTLA captured footage from its news helicopter showing a dark funnel cloud forming over Montebello, a suburb of Los Angeles about 10 miles from downtown. The preliminary information indicates it's "very possible" this cloud was a tornado, National Weather Service meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld told The Associated Press. "It's definitely not something that's common for the region," she added.
Alex Gillman, a spokesman for the city of Montebello, said at least five buildings and some vehicles were damaged during the incident, and the person who was injured has been hospitalized.
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The National Weather Service is sending a team to Montebello to look at the damage and determine whether a tornado hit, the Los Angeles Times reports. Meteorologist Kristen Stewart told the Times it could have been a landspout, which is a weaker tornado that forms differently.
The storm caused damage in Northern California on Tuesday, with the winds toppling trees and power lines and blowing out windows in San Francisco high-rise buildings. Debris on railroad tracks caused an Amtrak commuter train to derail near Porta Costa; no one was injured. Officials say the storm killed at least five people across the Bay Area, including two who died after trees fell on their vehicles. The National Weather Service Bay Area said on Wednesday the storm was so fierce that "even by the standards of what has turned out to be one of our most extraordinary winter seasons in a very long time, yesterday ... stands out."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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