Winter storm hits area hard, tree falls on my sister's bedroom

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My sister's bizarre experience last Friday, below in red

A winter storm blasted Northern California Friday, living up to its pre-arrival billing as a fierce and dangerous visitor.

Power was knocked out to more than half the residents of Butte and Glenn counties, as rain and winds as high as 60 mph toppled trees and power poles throughout the area. Power wasn't expected to be restored in Chico for 24 hours or more, with even longer waits in more rural areas.

It was the wind that did the damage.

On every street, bits of tree limbs littered the streets. In many places, large trees fell, taking out fences, cars and bashing in homes. Many streets were blocked at points during the day, including major thoroughfares like Forest Avenue in Chico and the Skyway in Paradise. In the orchards surrounding Chico, thousands of mature almond trees blew down, just a month before they were to bloom.

The experience of Juliette Fish of Chico was far too common Friday.

Fish, an emergency room nurse at Enloe Medical Center, had the day off and was looking forward to sleeping late. That plan, she said, ended with a bang.

Wind toppled an 80-foot cedar tree in the backyard of her Hillview Avenue home at about 8 a.m., sending a large branch through a bedroom ceiling that narrowly missed her as she slept.

"It was the loudest noise I've ever heard," Fish said. "It was more like an explosion."

The tree left a gaping hole in the roof. The branch that landed on the floor of Fish's bedroom, about eight inches around and six feet long, ripped through beams and the sheetrock ceiling, allowing water to soak the bedroom floor.

Fish said her insurance company had a crew at her home by 9:30 a.m., clearing the huge tree and making preparations to temporarily patch her roof.

"That tree could have fallen in any direction, but it chose to land right on the house," she said. She added that foliage on the tree always seemed to be thicker on the side near the house, and guessed that influenced how it fell.

"You just don't expect a tree that size to fall." She said it was older than the house, which was built in the 1950s.

Photo #1 attached. Juliette Fish stands near the huge cedar tree which toppled in her backyard about 8 a.m. It hit the roof over her bedroom and sent a large branch piercing through the ceiling, barely missing her as she slept. (Greg Welter/Enterprise-Record)

Photo #2. Workers clear branches from the roof of Juliette Fish's home Friday morning after an 80-foot cedar tree toppled in her backyard and sent a branch crashing through her bedroom ceiling. (Greg Welter/Enterprise-Record)