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Crews, Homeowners Cleaning Up Down Trees And Power Lines After Big Storm

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Some homeowners are still trying to clean up the mess that Sunday night's storm left behind. This as crews work to restore power to many parts of the Sacramento area.

"This is the top of the tree that sailed through the air," said homeowner Stuart Spoto.

Spoto says his family was getting ready for dinner when suddenly, "we heard this loud boom."

At first, he thought there was an easy explanation to it.

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"Since we make wine here I figured it could have been one of my barrels falling off a rack or something because I never heard a boom like that before," he said.

It was a tree branch, nestled on his roof.

"The tree had to hit just perfectly to pierce the roof and then to proceed six deep to go through the ceiling as well," he said.

By the time crews got it out Monday morning, it left a gaping hole behind.

"It just boggles my mind how it could go through the roof like that," he said.

The strong winds from Sunday's storm led to downed trees and power poles in various parts of the Sacramento area. The Sacramento Regional Fire and EMS communication center lost power.

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"Our System went into back up," said Captain Chris Vestal of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department.

Vestal says back up failed two hours later, meaning a communication link between emergency 911 systems could no longer send information to the center, which deals with calls about fire or medical related emergencies.

"The calls were all answered by the primary answering centers and then transferred to us so there weren't any lost calls," he said.

He added that this is a circumstance they train for, but rarely have to deal with, until Sunday night.

As for Stuart, he says he's working to get his roof fixed.

"At least no one was hurt. So that's the, I guess the silver lining to the cloud," he said.

Two schools within Sacramento City Unified School District were closed Monday because of power outages. District officials say the power is expected to be restored tonight and school will be back open tomorrow.

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