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A Kern County man sleeping in his bed was killed Monday morning when a 10-story-tall tree was broken by high winds and came crashing through his roof.
The death was the most serious injury caused by a storm which dumped heavy rain and brought violent winds to the county.
A second storm, predicted for Tuesday afternoon, is not expected to be as violent.
There were dozens of minor traffic accidents across the county Monday, and several more serious wrecks.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without electricity as utility company crews fought to keep up with the storm, which started with rain Sunday and ended with gale force winds Monday morning and afternoon.
Those winds were clocked at more than 80 mph near the Grapevine, and that’s where the fatality happened.
Devin Storz was sleeping at his home at 1627 Freeman Drive in the community of Pine Mountain Club when the 100-foot-tall pine tree crashed through the roof at about 9:30 a.m. Family and friends said he had just celebrated his 21st birthday.
Firefighters got there quickly, and neighbors even more quickly, but it was too late.
"When I first got there, we were hoping he was alive," said neighbor Robert Lagas. "All the father could say was, 'my son is under there.' And we were just frantically trying to get stuff off of there, anything we found, but all that stuff is heavy. You couldn't move the tree.
"Then the fire department arrived and took over. They used a chain saw to cut the tree to relieve some of the pressure. We asked how he was doing and they just said he had passed away. He was gone."
Family and friends were grieving at the home, most of them in shock that the storm took the young man's life. And in town, Storz's friends were overcome with emotion.
"He radiated energy,"’ said Katie Bedard. "He was a beautiful person. He will be missed by so many people."
In Bakersfield, howling winds up to 40 mph knocked down trees and heavy rain created chaos in some places.
Suzette Sessions and her sister-in-law were at her Oildale house when the storm hit.
"We heard a bump on the roof," Sessions said. "Then, all of a sudden, I was standing here and she was coming outside and I screamed, 'Mossy! Mossy!' for her to run back inside because that whole thing fell and almost hit her in the head."
Limbs from the palm tree fell, coming dangerously close to the sister-in-law, Anita Miller.
"If I would have stepped one foot closer, the tree limb would have hit me," Miller said.
On Beardsley Avenue, a large branch snapped, crashing into an apartment complex near a mobile home village.
"Everybody in the trailer park heard it, and everything," said Deborah Lynn Kendall, the manager of the complex. "It just went wham! It landed pretty much in the back of No. 6 which is, thank God, empty. But it didn't look like it damaged the inside. Looks like it just damaged the roof."
Downed power lines meant about 33 separate outages in the Bakersfield area alone, affecting about 5,000 customers.
A PG&E spokesman said 7,193 homes and businesses were without power Monday morning.
Fire crews throughout the county were dispatched to calls of lines down and arcing wires. Police crews were sent to dozens of burglar alarms tripped by the wind rattling windows and shorting out power supplies.
A Kern County man sleeping in his bed was killed Monday morning when a 10-story-tall tree was broken by high winds and came crashing through his roof.
The death was the most serious injury caused by a storm which dumped heavy rain and brought violent winds to the county.
A second storm, predicted for Tuesday afternoon, is not expected to be as violent.
There were dozens of minor traffic accidents across the county Monday, and several more serious wrecks.
Thousands of homes and businesses were without electricity as utility company crews fought to keep up with the storm, which started with rain Sunday and ended with gale force winds Monday morning and afternoon.
Those winds were clocked at more than 80 mph near the Grapevine, and that’s where the fatality happened.
Devin Storz was sleeping at his home at 1627 Freeman Drive in the community of Pine Mountain Club when the 100-foot-tall pine tree crashed through the roof at about 9:30 a.m. Family and friends said he had just celebrated his 21st birthday.
Firefighters got there quickly, and neighbors even more quickly, but it was too late.
"When I first got there, we were hoping he was alive," said neighbor Robert Lagas. "All the father could say was, 'my son is under there.' And we were just frantically trying to get stuff off of there, anything we found, but all that stuff is heavy. You couldn't move the tree.
"Then the fire department arrived and took over. They used a chain saw to cut the tree to relieve some of the pressure. We asked how he was doing and they just said he had passed away. He was gone."
Family and friends were grieving at the home, most of them in shock that the storm took the young man's life. And in town, Storz's friends were overcome with emotion.
"He radiated energy,"’ said Katie Bedard. "He was a beautiful person. He will be missed by so many people."
In Bakersfield, howling winds up to 40 mph knocked down trees and heavy rain created chaos in some places.
Suzette Sessions and her sister-in-law were at her Oildale house when the storm hit.
"We heard a bump on the roof," Sessions said. "Then, all of a sudden, I was standing here and she was coming outside and I screamed, 'Mossy! Mossy!' for her to run back inside because that whole thing fell and almost hit her in the head."
Limbs from the palm tree fell, coming dangerously close to the sister-in-law, Anita Miller.
"If I would have stepped one foot closer, the tree limb would have hit me," Miller said.
On Beardsley Avenue, a large branch snapped, crashing into an apartment complex near a mobile home village.
"Everybody in the trailer park heard it, and everything," said Deborah Lynn Kendall, the manager of the complex. "It just went wham! It landed pretty much in the back of No. 6 which is, thank God, empty. But it didn't look like it damaged the inside. Looks like it just damaged the roof."
Downed power lines meant about 33 separate outages in the Bakersfield area alone, affecting about 5,000 customers.
A PG&E spokesman said 7,193 homes and businesses were without power Monday morning.
Fire crews throughout the county were dispatched to calls of lines down and arcing wires. Police crews were sent to dozens of burglar alarms tripped by the wind rattling windows and shorting out power supplies.
