As the Southland readied Saturday for a hot weekend with continuing Santa Ana winds, officials were still cleaning up from Friday morning’s heavy winds when trees were knocked to the ground, more than 32,000 customers were left without power and streets were littered with trash bins and other debris.
“The wind storms typically result in power outages as dried palm fronds, tree branches, downed trees and other debris fall and make contact with power lines,” Albert Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said.
“LADWP crews are working as diligently and as safely as possible under these heavy wind conditions to restore power to customers affected,” Rodriguez said.
As of Friday evening, nearly 7,000 DWP customers were still without electricity in various parts of the city, including 1,783 in Reseda and 1,423 in Hollywood.
About 23,000 DWP customers were without power at one point, according to the utility, which reported hundreds of separate outage incidents throughout the day.
Southern California Edison reported as many as 9,600 customers without electricity in its jurisdiction in various parts of Los Angeles County.
Outside the DWP Los Angeles areas in SCE terrirotry, there were 1,180 customers without service early Friday evening, including 717 in West Covina, 158 in Santa Monica and 112 in Torrance as a result of 14 separate outage incidents, the utility reported.
The winds knocked down trees across the area, including in Northridge, where the gusts felled a 70-foot-tall pine tree that crushed the top of a pickup on Superior Street.
In West Los Angeles, power outages left traffic lights flashing red at a series of intersections, complicating the morning commute.
Some wind gusts reaching 60 mph were recorded in the northern reaches of the county, according to the National Weather Service. In the San Fernando Valley, winds were gusting around 40 mph.
Gusts up to 45 mph caused seven inbound flights to be diverted from Los Angeles International Airport to Ontario International Airport, said Nancy Castles, spokeswoman for Los Angeles World Airports, which operates both facilities. Six were passenger flights and one a cargo plane, and all but the cargo plane had made their way to LAX by 11:30 a.m., Castles said.
Some equipment that was blown around LAX struck and damaged three aircraft, two of them cargo planes and one destined for a charter flight that had to be delayed to Saturday, Castles said.
Forecasters said the winds will be sticking around.
“An upper level ridge will build into the West Coast and surface high pressure will move into Nevada over the weekend,” according to the NWS. “This will bring gusty Santa Ana winds to portions of the region tonight through Sunday morning.”
—City News Service