Still in disbelief and shaken up, South Los Angeles residents were cleaning up Saturday after a rare twister wreaked havoc in their neighborhood, blowing roof tiles and other debris onto their properties and uprooting trees onto fences.
The small tornado, with winds speeds of 65 to 85 mph, tore up roofs, damaged a steel billboard and blew out windows as a powerful storm lashed the region Friday morning.
Residents who felt the twister said they hunkered down thinking they were in the middle of an earthquake.
“We just heard a bunch of banging and crashing and we were like, ‘What’s going on?’ So we rushed outside and we see this metal up in the air flying toward our neighbor’s house,” said resident Angel Martinez, who was clearing debris such as metal pipes and tree branches from his backyard Saturday.
The tornado raced through streets from South Vermont and West Gage avenues to 57th and Figueroa streets, according to the National Weather Service.
No injuries were reported.
The NWS identified the twister as an EF0, the smallest type of tornado.
