A tornado in Montebello ripped the roof off a building, damaged several others and uprooted a 1-foot-diameter tree Wednesday.
A Times photographer captured wild photos of the scene showing significant damage to buildings and cars in the area.
Nate Cherchian was there and captured the tornado live. In his video, someone notes that the vortex ripped “the f— ceiling off those guys.”
A March 22 tornado in Montebello tore through a roof and hurls debris into the air. Captured by Nate Cherchian
“Keep him away from us,” says a man offscreen.
In a second video, Sergio Ochoa recorded strong winds whipping through a Montebello winery, scattering debris and causing apparent damage to the building.
Video of the Montebello warehouse taken during Wednesday’s tornado shows high winds that damaged the building and scattered debris.
In the video, an alarm sounds as objects appear to fall from the ceiling.
Although tornadoes are rare in Southern California, they do happen.
“People feel like we don’t have tornadoes in California, but we actually have them here,” said Carol Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “Seeing a few of them a year is not uncommon.”
See a map of the tornado’s path below.
The National Weather Service had already determined that a “weak” tornado touched down in Carpinteria on Tuesday. It was rated EF0 on a scale of 0 to 5 and had winds of up to 75 mph. The Montebello event, which occurred at 11:14 a.m. Wednesday, was stronger, at EF1, with winds up to 110 mph.
Times staff writers Christian Martinez, Deborah Netburn and Brennon Dixson contributed to this report.
