Santa Ana winds knock out power to thousands in California

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Power was being restored Sunday to tens of thousands of people who lost electricity in Southern California after fierce Santa Ana winds gusting as much as 89 mph toppled trees and power poles.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said Saturday's outages affected more than 54,000 customers — mostly in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles.

The Santa Ana winds downed numerous trees and power poles across the region. The damage included a large billboard that blew down in Burbank, while a big tree fell into the kitchen of a house in Van Nuys.

Scattered outages also left 1,700 Southern California Edison customers without power in Fontana and Ontario east of Los Angeles.

FULL story at link.



A Los Angeles Department of Transportation worker tends to a fallen traffic light that was blown down by heavy winds in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2015. A brief but powerful round of Santa Ana winds with gusts topping 60 mph toppled trees and power lines in Los Angeles. About 9,000 customers were without electricity in the San Fernando Valley Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150125/us--santa_ana_winds-6b7177b248.html

[bluedigger]

1. That's just a lot of hot air.

[hunter]

2. Man, I hated those winds when I was a kid.

It was asthma and allergy hell, and with the air so dry, nose bleeds too.

Then came the fires.

It's one more reason I'm glad I don't live in Southern California anymore.

Some people consider these winds invigorating, and they did clear the smog out, back in the old days when Los Angeles smog was really awful.

[olddots]

3. it interupts texting

My Starbucks order was misplaced .....actually they do get bad sometimes and blow down trees etc....

[outside]

4. Lost power

at 1am. My pool is a mess!

[lunasun]

8. Take care

[mnhtnbb]

5. I lived in SoCal from 1965-1988 and I don't remember Santa Ana winds in January!

Mostly, they happened in the fall, and were not as strong as this!

[C Moon]

6. I lived in North Orange county in the 70's and we got some fierce winds (similar to these)

Christmas eve and Christmas day.
I remember laying in bed late at night listening to the gusts blow over the roof—each gust sounded like a stampede of horses.
It was scary.
In the morning, trees and debris everywhere.

[Brother Buzz]

7. Red Wind

"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."― Raymond Chandler, Red Wind