Storm ravages county

High winds gusted, limbs cracked and heavy rains poured throughout the foothills Monday, leaving a trail of destruction across Calaveras County.

Between 4 and 6 inches of rain fell throughout the Gold Country, flooding drainage ditches and creeks, and unusually forceful winds knocked branches into power lines and onto roadways, leaving thousands in the dark or stranded on the road Monday evening.

“A large tree came down on a vehicle at the Government Center,” said Perry Jordan,Public Works road superintendent. “It fell at around 4:30 p.m. and the car had a man inside of it. Luckily there were no injuries and it was a rental car, so he's not too upset about it.”

Jordan said his department was quite busy Tuesday and, “I would venture to say we removed a minimum of 20 trees.”

“We had multiple tree tops and trees come down, the worst being on Mountain Ranch Road, where a large limb was tied up with the power lines and we had to wait for PG&E to respond before we could cut it out of the roadway.”