Strong Wind Gusts Knock Out Power Across Southland

Crews worked Wednesday to restore power and clear the roads of trees and branches knocked down by high winds.

Gusts topping 50 miles per hour uprooted trees and downed power lines Tuesday, knocking out power to thousands of utility customers from Orange County to the Los Angeles-Ventura county line and beyond.

One person was injured when a tree fell on a car at 3132 S. Broadway, between 31st and 32nd streets in South Los Angeles, just before 7 p.m. Tuesday, and a palm tree fell into a home at 3310 Mont Clair St. in the Jefferson Park area, said Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey.

Thousands of Southern California Edison and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers lost power as gusty winds buffeted the region on the heels of a cold front out of the Gulf of Alaska.

About 2,000 DWP customers in South Los Angeles were without power Tuesday night, said Carol Tucker of the DWP. Another 600 customers in Encino lost power around 5 p.m. Of the 2,600, all but 130 had service restored by early evening.

However, subsequent outages occurred overnight, and as of about 7 a.m. Wednesday, about 2,400 LADWP customers were without service, many of them in the Fairfax district, said DWP spokeswoman Jane Galbraith.

Southern California Edison reported that outages affected more than 17,000 customers in its service area from Anaheim to the Los Angeles-Ventura county line as of about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The hardest-hit area was the San Gabriel Valley, particularly in San Gabriel, Sierra Madre, Arcadia and Monrovia, said Mashi Nyssen of SCE.

Also affected in the Greater Los Angeles area were parts of Inglewood and Huntington Beach, she said, adding that all the outages were wind-related.

By about 5:20 a.m. Wednesday, power had been restored to all but about 2,200 SCE customers, with many of the remaining affected customers in Redondo Beach, Long Beach and West Covina, Nyssen said.

The rain -- as opposed to the wind -- was a small part of the latest weather system to strike the Southland. Rainfall totals in the 24-hour period that ended at 4 p.m. Tuesday included 0.69 of an inch in Pasadena, .51 in downtown Los Angeles, .49 at Santa Monica Airport, .36 in Pomona, .31 in Northridge, and .23 at Los Angeles International Airport.

Wind gusts, meanwhile, reached 51 mph in Saugus, 49 mph in the Newhall Pass, 48 mph in the Malibu Hills and 45 mph in Beverly Hills.

More windy weather was expected Wednesday, along with sunny skies and crisp temperatures. The NWS forecast highs of 38 on Mount Wilson; 48 in Lancaster and Palmdale; 53 in Saugus; 57 in Burbank; 58 in Pasadena, San Gabriel and Woodland Hills; 59 in Anaheim; and 60 in downtown L.A., Avalon, Newport Beach, Long Beach and at LAX.

A new storm, also from the Gulf of Alaska, is expected to hit by the weekend, with rain forecast for Sunday and showers for Monday, according to the NWS.

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