Throughout the San Gabriel Valley and parts of Los Angeles, residents continue to rely on candles and flashlights as work crews struggle to restore power after last week's wind storms.
About 46,000 homes and residences served by Southern California Edison were without electricity Sunday afternoon, the utility said in its Twitter feed. That's down from 51,000 still without power Sunday morning. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which at one point had 200,000 customers without power, said the lights had been restored to all but 24 homes and businesses by mid-morning Sunday.
There was little wind early Sunday to impede cleanup efforts, but the National Weather Service is predicting second wave, which would hit the region Monday and Tuesday. Gusts of up to 70 mph are expected.
The ongoing power blackouts were the result of last week's unusual Santa Ana winds, which gusted up to 97 mph on Wednesday and Thursday, knocking down trees and power lines in much of the region. The San Gabriel Valley and the Northeastern parts of Los Angeles were particularly hard-hit.
To get by, many families bunked in with friends and relatives whose homes were not affected by the storm.
One man wrote on the NBC LA Facebook page that his family had replaced an electric stove for one that uses gas, just to be able to cook. Others said they had been relying on take-out food, laundromats and candles.
In Pasadena, more than 42 buildings were red-tagged because of damage from the winds, meaning that they were declared not safe for people to live in.
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The winds toppled trees, ripped the roof off a restaurant in Glendale and prompted Pasadena city officials to declare a local emergency. About 100 trees fell Wednesday night in Pasadena, including one that crushed a gas station canopy on Colorado Boulevard.
"I have been with the city for over 32 years here, and I have never seen it to this degree -- the widespread damage throughout the city," said Pasadena Fire Chief Calvin Wells. "It was getting out of hand at times, hard to keep up with."
