2 Injured as Tornado Hits Salinas; Roofs Ripped Off of 16 Greenhouses at Nursery

A rare tornado whipped through a large nursery here Friday morning, injuring two people, ripping the roofs off 16 greenhouses and scattering debris for hundreds of feet.

“It was a great big funnel cloud,” said a spokesman for the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department. “I can’t remember one this big ever hitting Salinas.”

A severe thunderstorm watch was called Friday afternoon for the Central California coast from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. Portions of the area were pelted with pea-sized hail, winds up to 60 m.p.h. and thundershowers, according to a spokesman for Earth Environment Service, a private San Francisco weather service.

The twister hit the 35-acre Sunnyside nursery at 8:14 a.m., said Capt. John Hooks of the North Monterey County Fire District. Two employees at the nursery suffered minor injuries and were treated at the scene. He estimated damage to the nursery at about $250,000.

‘Rare Around Here’

“A tornado is very rare around here,” Hooks said. “It tore down roofs and rafters and sent all kinds of debris flying into the fields. There were a lot of workers out there. We’re very lucky nobody was seriously injured.”

Sunnyside employee Anne Sparling said four greenhouses were destroyed and a number of others were damaged.

“We saw it coming and it just came so fast that nobody could do anything about it. It tore off the fiberglass roofs in the houses,” said Sunnyside employee Lorna Wheatley.

‘Growing Narrower’

“You could see it going up into the air,” she said. “It was huge. It was going up higher and higher and becoming narrower and narrower and then it went away.”