Strong winds knocked the 30-ton crane onto the roof of the mall at about 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27, creating a sound likened to an earthquake. The toppled crane punctured the roof at the north side of Vallco, crashed crane pieces into stores and caused water damage, but no injuries.

"I was at the meeting, and all of a sudden Mike Rohde [Vallco's general manager] bolted out of the room," said resident Janice Ishii.

"Carol Atwood [Cupertino's finance director] was giving a slide presentation on noise complaints at Vallco when somebody spoke up and said [her slides] aren't going to be correct because the crane fell down," Ishii said.

The crane has since been removed and Cal/OSHA is contucting an investigation of the incident.

The accident is sure to generate more controversy about construction at the mall, portions of which remain open for business.

Many neighbors had already asked the city council to reconsider allowing for 24-hour construction at the shopping center, which led to the discussion of the issue at the Feb. 27 meeting, which started about an hour before the crane fell.

The council has said the construction was necessary in order to complete a movie theater complex at the top of the mall by November. AMC Theaters, the prospective tenant, has said it will pull out of the deal if the construction is not complete at the time--a move that could lead other stores to pull out of their tentative commitments. The theater has been seen as a key piece of revitalizing the long-struggling mall, and the crane was used by DPR Construction for the theater.

Now, the 24-hour construction permit is set to expire in May, and the November deadline for the cineplex is an open question.

"We don't know if it will impact the construction timeline," Steve Piasecki, Cupertino's director of community development, said. "The important thing is there were no injuries. [The accident] was a quirk of nature, and the rest of the mall is perfectly safe and accessible."

Some residents are not so sure.

"They are currently working 24 hours a day, so one wonders if this has had an impact on the safety of those that live around and continue to shop in, the Vallco Mall," said resident Keith Murphy, who lives across the street from Vallco, in a email.

Ishii, who lives on Merritt Drive near the mall, hopes the crane accident will cause authorities to reconsider their construction deadlines.

"I have already seen water leaking at the mall [before the accident], and the 24-hour construction is a ridiculous idea," she said, describing the noise as equivalent to a hammer hitting a pipe hanging in the air above her neighborhood. She said Vallco has been uncooperative about handling noise complaints on its hotline and held only two neighborhood meetings about its plans.

"They seem very unorganized and need to slow down," Ishii said.

At this point, Mayor Richard Lowenthal said, the focus is on assessing the damage and cleaning up. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is also looking into any safety violations in the operation of the crane. "We don't know how big a setback it is yet," Lowenthal said.