Powerful wind gusts wreaked havoc across the Southland Tuesday night and early Wednesday, knocking out power, uprooting trees and prompting high-wind warnings across Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Some 600 customers were without power in Encino because of downed wires, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Reported shortly before 5 p.m. and restored hours later, the outage was blamed on strong winds that ripped through the area, Gale Harris, of DWP, told City News Service.
Gusty winds knocked out power in scattered areas of South Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
Hundreds of Southern California Edison customers also were in the dark late Tuesday, according to the utility's online tracker, which pointed to winds as the cause for many of the outages. As of 5 a.m., about 1,100 customers in LA County and 200 in Orange County were affected by power outages.
Winds uprooted a massive tree in South Los Angeles. The tree fell on a red pickup truck (pictured below) about 7 p.m. in the 3100 block of S. Broadway. At least one person was injured, police said.
The tree was cut into segments, which were moved to the side of the road to clear the street for traffic.
In La Crescenta, residents reported hearing palm fronds crash to the pavement, ripping down powerlines and causing a transformer to explode.
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"I think there was a big gun or explosion that went off," said Kimberly Fiallo.
And festive Angelenos said as seasonally-appropriate at the strong winds and frigid temperatures are, they were knocking down Christmas decorations like toys.
Los Angeles and Ventura counties will remain under a high-wind warning until 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
Affected areas include the cities of Lockwood Valley, Mount Pinos, Acton, Mountain Wilson and Sandberg, according to the NWS. Winds in those areas were expected to reach 45 mph, and gusts could reach 65 mph Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning.
