Tulare County felt the impact of Friday’s storm all day and night. The rain and strong winds delivered a knockout punch to one homeowner on Firebaugh Avenue in Exeter.
A local tree service company came to their rescue by sawing apart the thick tree trunk of a 30-foot Eucalyptus tree that came crashing down on their roof.
The structural damage was relatively minor. The big concern was that the branches pinned down nearby power lines.
“This storm that came through has dropped a lot of lines and created a lot of issues throughout the county, so we’re scrambling to get on top of that,” said Jesse Renteria of the Tulare Co. Fire Dept.
Utility crews came through and shut off the electricity after neighbor, Chuck McCracken, had already taken some precautionary measures of his own.
“I turned the breakers off on my house and immediately went over and turned the main breaker off on the neighbor’s house to eliminate having a fire inside the house,” said Chuck McCracken, a neighbor.
The Red Cross helped the homeowners through the evacuation process by arranging to put them up in a motel for the weekend. An inconvenience, but they’re glad that’s all it is.
“Thank God nobody was hurt,” said Carol Qualls, daughter of the homeowner.