Fierce winds toppled several power poles in Lake Elsinore Thursday, throwing lines across a residential street, which authorities promptly closed for public safety.
The lines collapsed about 10:30 a.m. in the 33300 block of Baldwin Boulevard, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. Four utility poles were damaged by the intense north winds blowing since midnight, causing the lines to fall.
Sheriff’s deputies shut down Baldwin between Hayes and MacKay avenues to prevent motorists from driving over the lines, according to reports from the scene.
Southern California Edison reported that 40 customers were impacted by the ensuing power outage. Technicians were sent to make repairs.
There were additional small-scale outages stemming from windstorm impacts in the western county region, but the largest outage was just southeast of Desert Hot Springs, where SCE said the power was knocked out about 10:15 a.m., leaving nearly 1,700 customers without electricity.
As of 11:30 a.m., Riverside Municipal Airport was reporting wind speeds between 25 and 30 mph, gusting to 40 mph.
The winds are expected to die down Thursday afternoon.