Tornadoes Touch Down in Westminster, Anaheim : They wreak havoc at a mobile home park and in a commercial district, but no injuries are reported.

WESTMINSTER —  Before mobile home resident Robert White “could get one foot in the shower” Monday morning, he heard a sharp crack and then a crashing sound outside his trailer.

He grabbed a flashlight and ventured outside to inspect.

“It was pitch-black at 5:15 and raining very heavy,” said White, 62. “I had heard a whirling kind of sound. I wasn’t sure what it was, but the house was shaking.”

Authorities in Westminster said the whirling sound was a tornado, which blasted out the windows of White’s trailer home and sent the top half of a 60-foot palm tree toppling onto his car. The winds also hurled a chain saw onto his roof.

White and many other residents of the 116-unit Summerset Mobile Estates in the 9200 block of Westminster Boulevard had been awakened by the stormy weather before the funnel cloud swept by.

“The wind was blowing so hard I couldn’t see through the rain,” said resident Julie Lossin, 70. “Pieces of glass were flying all over. It is a wonder nobody got hurt.”

Many residents said they initially thought the roaring sound was an earthquake, but the local Fire Department said a tornado had touched down, causing an estimated $500,000 in damage to about 20 mobile homes. Westminster Police Capt. Craig Campbell estimated that the tornado stretched about 30 feet wide and cut a 300-foot swath.

Police in Anaheim said a tornado blazed a trail through a commercial district about 8:30 a.m., sucking tree limbs and metal debris hundreds of feet into the sky, knocking out power and heaving a parked car onto another. Nobody was hurt in the brief but chaotic touchdown on the 1200 block of Jefferson Avenue.

The National Weather Service could not confirm the reports that tornadoes had struck.

But Bob Adams, an employee at Mission Uniform and Linen Service in Anaheim, said he watched the funnel cloud materialize and sweep down in front of his office.

“All of a sudden it came up around us like a surprise and started roaring,” Adams said of the tornado. “I was standing at the front door watching the funnel go down the street.”

Employees at Roto Industries ran for cover as the tornado circled over the warehouse, tearing skylights off the roof and whipping debris around the building.

“It got super, super dark,” said Heather Williams, 21, a receptionist whose desk is closest to the front window. “And then the doors started flapping back and forth.”

Williams caught a glimpse of the action as she tried to lock the glass doors before fleeing to the center of the building. She said she could hear trees cracking as the winds bent them to the ground.

In the parking lot, a car was lifted off the ground, flipped and deposited on the car next to it. Across the street, a tree collapsed on a power line and a car.

“It was really weird,” Williams said. “I could see the swirling and pieces of metal and stuff flying. I freaked out.”

And then the tornado was gone.

“It was awesome,” said Sandy Mitchell, office manager at Mission Uniform. “Afterward it was real quiet.”

“I think the whole thing was over in 30 seconds,” said Billy Bryant, operations manager at Roto Industries. “We were damn lucky, because nobody got hurt and we came out fairly unscathed and with minuscule damage.”

Anaheim’s public utilities crew spent much of the morning removing the tree that fell on both a parked car and a power line, knocking out electricity and telephone service on the street for about four hours. No damage estimate was available Monday.