California tornado victims recount ordeal

ROSEVILLE, CA (KCRA/CNN) Garden sheds and picnic tables were sent flying when a tornado touched down near Roseville, CA Wednesday.

Several houses in one neighborhood suffered thousands of dollars in damages.

Mark Thompson estimates his garden shed weighs a thousand pounds, but says the tornado picked it up, threw it against his home, then eight feet into his backyard.

"Debris was flying and my picnic table was picked up from the side of my house and flew and hit their house," Thompson said.

The picnic table not only hit the back wall of Keith Kun's house, it broke all the way into a bedroom on the second floor.

The tornado also smashed Kun's backyard fence, busted two of his windows and littered his pool with wood chips and a ceramic planter.

"The fire marshal said they'll likely have to pull all the stucco off the back of the house," Kun said, "and he said with the windows and everything, probably between $25,000 and $30,000 worth of repairs to the house."

First reported as a funnel cloud near Sacramento International Airport at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the tornado touched down in west Roseville around 6:15 p.m. It continued as a funnel cloud and wall could to Loomis around 7 p.m.

The weather service says this tornado stayed on the ground for a couple hundred yards, and within a few seconds, it was gone.

In all, 12 homes had at least minor damage and no one was hurt. For most people, it was a reason to grab a cell phone, snap pictures and shoot video, and tell their friends across the country that California can be tornado country.

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California tornado victims recount ordeal