A 100-foot-tall eucalyptus tree was no match for the fierce winds in Saratoga Tuesday.
Even with a trunk the width of a small car, winds ripped it out of the ground and sent it crashing onto a home on Lutheria Way.
The homeowners got out safely, but because of the damage, they can't go back in.
Next door neighbor, Mason Pan said the tree also took out power lines, cutting the neighborhood's power.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
“I heard the powerline, and I saw the electricity pole shaking. It was really pretty scary,” he said.
Firefighters used a chainsaw to cut and clear it from the road.
Winds also took out trees in Los Gatos and in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and caused a power outage at RJ Fisher Middle school in Los Gatos.
At Westlake Elementary School in Santa Cruz, a tree fell on a power line causing a campus-wide outage.
“There was a really loud boom, everyone freaked out. The power went off. It was super scary,” said student Bailey Alsobrook of Santa Cruz.
Students evacuated classrooms and hung out on the blacktop but classes later resumed.
The storm also caused dozens of road closures including Highway 9 in Saratoga. It shut down after a massive mudslide near Savannah Chanelle Winery. The winery owners say the slide has trapped them in their home for two days.
Emergency crews said people don’t need to be in the woods to be at risk from falling trees and recommend you not wear ear buds if you're out in this storm so you can hear if a branch snaps and get out of the way.
