Staff writers

Eric Nielsen had just returned from the park and was sitting on his tailgate with his dog when he heard what sounded like a freight train bearing down on him.

A towering eucalyptus, its roots unmoored from a storm-softened hillside, came crashing down on Nielsen's home on Brunell Drive.

"It was the most horrendous roar and crackling and crashing you ever heard in your life," Nielsen, 54, said on Saturday, a day after the aging eucalyptus broke through his roof, partially landing in the carport and just missing him.

That tree and another one in the neighborhood broke a transformer and two power poles and damaged a third pole, bringing down power lines in the Oakland hills near Joaquin Miller Road on Friday evening.

Meanwhile, a landslide near Moraga Country Club on Saturday triggered the evacuation of two homes. The houses sit above a hillside that leads down to a creek. The hillside, homeowners told a reporter, had dramatically shifted since earlier in the week.

They were among the casualties of a blustery storm that bore down on the Bay Area as the weekend began.

After a lull much of Saturday, showers moved in again from the north as the day wore on.

The latest storm, which didn't reach the South Bay until Saturday evening, was not expected to carry as much oomph. But after days of sporadically heavy rain, the National Weather Service warned residents to be on alert through Monday.


"We have very saturated soils, so it does not take as much to topple a tree as it would have a week ago," said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the weather service.

The storm is expected to bring just half an inch of rain in the South Bay and three-quarters of an inch on most of the Peninsula and in the East Bay. But it also will bring periodic downpours, which could raise totals to 1 ½ inches in some spots, Benjamin said.

Between 2 and 4 feet of snow was forecast for the higher crests of the Sierra Nevada and up to 18 inches in South Lake Tahoe through Monday.

After that, clouds will make way for springlike weather. While Monday will be in the low- to mid-60s, the weather will warm up from Tuesday, reaching the upper 70s in the East Bay, South Bay and Peninsula on Thursday.

"It should be nice and sunny," Benjamin said.

In the Oakland hills, the two falling trees knocked out power to 135 customers, Pacific Gas & Electric spokesman JD Guidi said. After crews worked through the night to remove the trees, power was expected to be restored by Saturday evening.

Nielsen's home, where he's lived his entire life, is red-tagged, with damage he estimated at $350,000. He and his family have found refuge with relatives until the home can be repaired.

Despite the damage, he feels very lucky.

The crashing tree "was something that could almost give you a heart attack," he said. "And at the same instant, you realize you're alive and you're just thanking God."

Staff writer Matthias Gafni and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Sharon Noguchi at snoguchi@mercurynews.com or 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12. Follow Jane Tyska at Twitter.com/Tyska.