LOS ANGELES — The second in a series of powerful storms roared into Southern California on Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and winds that smashed windows, submerged cars and flipped an SUV along a stretch of coastline.
Forecasters said the thunderstorm was likely part of a tornado that surged ashore with fierce, rotating winds in southern Los Angeles County beach towns and areas of Orange and San Diego counties.
Kimmara Acosta, 51, a saleswoman at Castle Tile in Costa Mesa, was sitting at her desk in a showroom when she saw palm trees outside blowing horizontally.
“The wind kind of whipped through the parking lot and the window blew in,” she said, still breathless a half-hour later. “It was like an explosion. My mind said ‘earthquake!’ and I ducked under the desk.”
The wind threw shards of glass across the room, but tile displays and a desk protected Acosta. No one was hurt.
Unlike twisters in the Midwest that can run for miles on the ground, Southern California tornadoes tend to start as waterspouts and dissipate quickly when they come ashore, said Philip Gonsalves, of the National Weather Service.
The fast-moving thunderstorm moved on in minutes, leaving spotty sunshine as it headed into Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
However, it left some streets under water in low-lying beach communities and turned other roadways into muddy swamps. Televised reports showed parked cars with water up to the hoods and kayakers paddling through a flooded suburb.
Southbound Interstate 710 flooded south of Interstate 405, trapping about a dozen vehicles in water, Long Beach fire spokesman Joshua Johnson said.
Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Greg McKeown said there also was flooding in Westminster, San Juan Capistrano and Placentia.
In inland San Bernardino County, two boys, ages 10 and 12, were rescued after getting trapped in a swollen flood-control channel.
In Northern California, rain and high winds caused numerous traffic tie-ups and road closures during the morning commute.
In San Jose, three people rescued a man from a burning car when it spun out on a rain-soaked road and hit a crosswalk sign. The rescuers used a knife to cut the man loose from his seat belt then pulled him to safety just seconds before the car burst into flames, authorities said.
The man’s condition was not immediately known.
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