The latest atmospheric river to hit the Bay Area has killed five people in separate incidents.
On Tuesday, around 3:40 p.m. the San Francisco Police Department responded to a report of a downed tree on the 1000 block of Post Street. Officers found two people injured, one with life-threatening injuries, and the other with non-life-threatening injuries.
Both were transported to the hospital.
Then around 4 p.m., officers were dispatched to another report of a fallen tree branch hitting a person on 23rd Avenue. The person was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.
According to city officials, two lives were lost to these incidents.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed urged residents to check on their friends and families and stay safe in response to the two lives lost.
“We tragically lost two lives due to yesterday’s dangerous storm that hit San Francisco. These repeated storms have been very challenging and caused severe conditions that our city crews are working to assess,” Mayor Breed said in a tweet. “Thank you to all of our public workers who have been out cleaning up damage as quickly as possible and keeping residents safe.”
Elsewhere in the Bay Area on Tuesday, a person in Walnut Creek was killed when a tree fell on their car. The car was running on Stanley Dollar Drive in the Rossmoor neighborhood when a tree fell on it.
Con Fire said the car’s driver had minor injuries, but the passenger was killed.
In Portola Valley, a driver was also killed when a large eucalyptus tree fell on top of their vehicle. The car was heading eastbound on Alpine Road west of I-280 when the falling tree crashed on top of the plumbing van.
The victim has been identified as Jesus Cruz Diaz, 29, of San Jose.
The fifth person was killed in Lake Merrit when a large tree fell on a tent.
According to Oakland Police, officers responded to the area around 5:45 p.m. Tuesday and found a man unconscious inside the tent.
Responding crews said they had to cut the tree and removed the man from the tent. He was pronounced dead at 5:58 p.m.
Officials said the exact cause of death is unknown, but he is presumed to have died due to blunt force or suffocation. The only significant visible trauma appeared to be in the torso area.
California Highway Patrol officials said incidents like these are the reason law enforcement urges people to stay off the roads during bad storms.
The identities of the victims have not been released.
