‘Just blew everything off’: Elementary school in Madera impacted by possible tornado

MADERA, Calif. ( KSEE/KGPE ) – An elementary school in Madera was impacted by the strong winds from the possible tornado forecasted in Madera County on Friday.

A tornado warning was issued Friday afternoon by the National Weather Service in Hanford for areas of Madera County, Mariposa County, and Merced County. However, at around 4:40 p.m., the National Weather Service said the warning was no longer in effect.

The National Weather Service in Hanford says the tornadic thunderstorm was forecasted to impact rural areas of southwestern Mariposa, south-central Madera, and east-central Merced Counties.

Berenda Elementary School in Madera was affected by the strong winds as tree branches were downed in the parking lot of the school.

A custodian at Berenda Elementary describes how everyone on campus acted fast once they saw the wind blowing fast, and tree branches falling down in the parking lot even on top of cars.

“Just blew everything off, blowing trees down,” said Joe Torres Custodian at Berenda Elementary describing how the scene took place.

The Madera Unified School District says there were down trees that went into the fencing surrounding the school. No damage was made to any of the school buildings. However, there was damage to a portable classroom on campus.

Micheal Gonsalves, a homeowner in Madera says the strong wind blew through and took down one of his sequoias trees, a bunch of branches in the backyard and it tore out about 150 feet of his fence.

Gonsalves shares how he saw what happened at the elementary school.

“Students were in the afterschool program, so the regular population of students were not there but there were probably 100, 150 students and they were all headed into the cafeteria immediately,” he said. “It took some major branches and blew them into the parking lot, onto some of the teacher’s cars,” said Gonsalves.

Gonsalves says that the school’s response was immediately to get the children to safety, as the school notified parents immediately, and all the after-school program staff brought the children into the cafeteria for their protection away from windows.

“They were well cared for and there were no harm,” said Gonsalves.

No injuries occurred.

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