South Bay and Peninsula take softer hit during Tuesday's storm

WOODSIDE, Calif. - In the South Bay this afternoon, strong winds and rain brought down some trees and created mudslides and fortunately, this time no injuries have been reported. 

The rain and wind have been on and off here today, but we talked to people in this area who say after last week’s devastating storms, they’re still concerned about falling trees and mudslides as the rain continues.   

Strong gusty, winds and heavy rain came down early Tuesday afternoon. More trees toppled over including at this home in Menlo Park, and here off Bear Creek Road in Los Gatos. Amy Armsby lives in Portola Valley and is still concerned about trees falling across the Bay Area.   

"A Eucalyptus tree uprooted and fell onto Middlefield Road and just missed a car. It was a massive tree. Scary. Really scary and then of course, the tragedy here," said Armsby.   

A small section of Alpine Road in Portola Valley is still blocked off where 29-year-old Jesus Ivan Cruz was killed after a large Eucalyptus tree fell on his work truck during last week’s storm. A small memorial of flowers has been left where the tree once stood. 

"I don’t know that we can get rid of all these Eucalyptus trees unfortunately, but they should probably be thinned out. I would guess, managed," said Peter Cotch, of Cupertino.   

With so much rain over the last few months, mudslides are happening more often like this one on Hwy 9 in Saratoga. Last week, an over saturation of water created this mudslide on Patrol Road and 30 homes in Woodside were told to evacuate. One woman says the excavation company she works for in Woodside has been helping homeowners clean up the mud. 

"There’s a section of the property that slid down the driveway and onto the street and into the house below the street, and so they’ve been cleaning up trees and everything," said Linda, who works in Woodside. 

High winds and falling trees seem to be one of people’s biggest concerns. 

"So, if there’s a lot of dead trees, I mean look at the branches over there. I think you can deal with that, and it can be managed. But I don’t subscribe to just taking all the trees out. That’s not going to work," said Dave, who lives in San Mateo County. 

Fortunately, the storm hit with far less force than previous storms, and people say they’re just hoping for some relief and dryer weather sometime soon.