Wintery Winds Rock The Southland
Cold, gale force winds of up to 70 mph blew across Southern California Monday, causing a flurry of damages and dangers for Los Angeles residents.
The chilly temperatures also brought light snowfall in the San Gabriel Mountains. Three to seven inches is expected by the day’s end, said forecasters from the National Weather Service.
The wintery winds knocked over several city power lines, cutting off electricity to nearly 18,000 homes Monday morning. A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said the majority of outages had been rectified throughout the day, with nearly 8,000 remaining outages by 2 p.m.
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But power lines weren’t the only objects falling from the sky—trees toppled as well.
Monday around 7:30 a.m., a woman was driving north on the 2600 block of Broadway Street in South L.A. when a sizeable tree fell on her moving vehicle. The L.A. Fire Department helped her out of the mangled wreck by sawing and removing impeding branches, a city official said.
The woman was hospitalized and given stitches for minor injuries, a source told ATVN.
Meanwhile, at around 9 a.m. on Hollywood Boulevard, a large piece of wood described by police as “an antennae” from a historic radio tower on the Pacific Theatre threatened the lives of several pedestrians below.
“A piece of it fell down and almost hit like three people. Literally,” said William Giblin, a nearby shop employee. “It was maybe like five feet from them.”
An additional piece of antennae dangled dangerously above the boulevard. The hazard prompted police to close the entire block of Hollywood Boulevard between Cahuenga and Wilcox. As of 2 p.m., the section of the road was closed until crews could remove the debris, police said.
While sudden gale force winds affect our life on land, they also affect the surf and currents. Breaking waves that range from four to eight feet are predicted to create forceful and frequent rip currents, increasing the risk of ocean drowning, a report by the NWS said.
What can you do to stay safe? The NWS recommends securing all loose outdoor furniture, monitoring the forecasts and swimming parallel to the shore if you are caught in a rip current. Inexperienced swimmers and surfers are warned to keep out of the water altogether.
The report also recommends driving with caution, as unexpected crosswinds can make it difficult to steer, especially for those towing trailers. Forecasters warn to be particularly careful driving on the Grapevine section of the Interstate 5, where Monday’s snowfall caused icy roads.
While Monday showed a high of 66 degrees in Downtown L.A., the temperature is expected to rise by up to eight degrees on Tuesday, and the extreme wind gusts are expected to subside.
