On 11-15-15 at 1:58 PM Denair Fire Department received a 911 call of a possible tornado in the 3900 Block of Gratton Road in Denair, CA. Several other 911 calls followed of the possible tornado touching down hitting homes, knocking down trees and damaging outbuildings. When Denair Fire Fighters arrived to the area of Santa Fe Avenue and E. Zeering Road they were able to see the path of the possible tornado, which had traveled eastbound on E. Zeering Road and headed into east Stanislaus County. There were also other 911 calls of possible funnel clouds in southeast Stanislaus County.
Emergency services personnel from several agencies responded to assist Denair Fire along with CHP, Fish and Game and the Sheriff’s Office. Stanislaus OES immediately set up to coordinate resources of agencies working in Denair. Chief Dale Skiles said, “ This is a rare occurrence in Stanislaus County to have a possible tornado touchdown in our county. All agencies that responded did a fantastic job working together to help the residents of Denair.”
The possible tornado damaged power lines knocking power out for a majority of the homes in Denair. Some of the homes also had potential gas leaks and gas to those homes was turned off. There were no reported injuries or fires as a result of the possible tornado.
TID responded to assess the damage done to power poles and what it would take to make them safe and begin to make repairs. As of this press release less than 120 accounts were still out of power and TID was working hard to have power restored by the morning. PG&E also responded to restore gas to about 50 homes. Water district employees were able to keep water running for Denair.
American Red Cross had set up a Respite Center providing residents with food, snacks and warmth at Denair Elementary School located at 3773 Madera Avenue in Denair. Denair Lumber had also opened to provide emergency building supplies for residents of Denair.
At this time we are referring to the incident as a possible tornado and the determination will be made by the national weather service when they arrive to Denair on 11-16-15.
