Winds Pound Region, Wreak Havoc on Roads

Winds gusting to 77 mph huffed and roared through Southern California like a beast unleashed Monday, killing a man in Sunland, toppling trees, flipping big trucks like toys, snapping power lines and causing widespread--though generally minor--damage.

Forecasters predicted the onslaught would continue through the night, possibly moderating later today.

The high winds, produced by an unusual collision of whirling pressure systems, prompted authorities to close two key freeways--a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 15 through the Inland Empire and 128 miles of Interstate 10 from Indio to the Arizona border. They also created an odd air of chaos across the region--revealing gorgeous mountain views even as motorists dodged flying debris. Discarded Christmas trees hurtled about like tumbleweeds.

“It’s like one big sandstorm,” said CHP Officer Tami Low. “Wear goggles. It’s pretty bad. . . . We haven’t had anything this bad in a long time.”

In a rare move, authorities recommended that campers and big flat-sided trailer trucks stay off the freeways throughout the entire Los Angeles region--a precaution usually limited to canyons and mountain passes.

At least nine big trucks were reported overturned on Interstate 15 and five more had flipped on Interstate 10, which was reopened by early evening, the CHP reported. No one was injured seriously, but officials said the wind was hindering efforts to right the trucks.

Two semi-trailer rigs were blown over on the eastbound Foothill Freeway at Osborne Street in Lake View Terrace, but no one was hurt.

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A 56-year-old Los Angeles man, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was fatally crushed by a falling tree, the LAPD reported.

The man was standing with a friend in an open field in the 10300 block of McBroom Street in Sunland at about 9 a.m. when the more than 60-foot-tall tree fell on him, said Sgt. Jerry Burns of the Foothill Division. He died about 1:20 p.m. at Northridge Hospital Medical Center of massive internal and external injuries, Burns said.

About 280,000 homes and businesses were at least temporarily without electricity in a broad swath from the San Fernando Valley to Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties. By late afternoon, more than 50,000 remained without power, facing a chill winter evening without heat, and many had no telephone service.

In the San Fernando Valley, the hardest-hit area was in the northeast, including San Fernando, North Hollywood, Pacoima and Sun Valley.

“I don’t remember it ever being this bad,” said Caltrans spokesman Rick Holland.

By midafternoon, at least 14,000 people in the Valley were still without power. DWP spokeswoman Karen Shepard-Grimes estimated that most homes would be without power until late Monday or early today.

“There is damage everywhere, but especially in areas with a lot of palm trees,” she said. “They have such huge and heavy branches that are falling off.”

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Betty Quigg of Sun Valley was startled out of bed at 5:30 a.m. by a series of crashing noises as three 80-foot Aleppo pines fell onto her patio, causing at least $6,000 damage.

“It sounded like a railroad coming through here,” she said. “We have never had a storm like this in the 46 years that I have been living in this house--even all the squirrels are gone.”

At 1 p.m., she still had no power, and with one huge tree standing above her bedroom, Quigg and her family decided to spend Monday night at a friend’s house.

Quigg’s neighbor, Darrin Wooldridge, got a break. Although a tree from Quigg’s backyard damaged his two garages, another tree headed for his house fell short when it landed on an already downed tree.

“It could have flattened parts of my house,” he said.

In San Fernando, residents said the damage in neighborhoods resembled the 1994 earthquake. Heavy trees more than 70 years old were uprooted and toppled, smashing onto roofs and dragging down power lines, knocking out electricity to about half of the 9,000 customers in the 2.5-square-mile city.

A disaster command post was set up at police headquarters early Monday, staffed by representatives of city departments and utility companies. Officials late Monday were considering asking that the city be declared a federal disaster zone.

Glen Becerra, regional manager for Southern California Edison, said San Fernando was hit harder than other communities within his territory, which covers areas north of Los Angeles, including the Santa Clarita, Antelope and Simi valleys. Crews were brought in from those areas, as well as from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, to deal with the downed power lines in San Fernando, Becerra said.

In Pacoima, the Charles Maclay Middle School and Primary Center, which has about 1,240 middle school students and 275 primary-grade pupils, was ordered closed today because of flying debris that could endanger students and teachers, a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesman said.

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The Glendale Unified School District announced that four of its schools within the La Crescenta area will be closed today because of lost electricity: Crescenta Valley High School, La Crescenta Elementary School, Mountain Avenue Elementary and Cloud Preschool.

At Valley College in North Hollywood, a one-block stretch of Burbank Boulevard was closed after a giant eucalyptus tree crashed onto electric lines, knocking power poles onto cars along the entire block.

“The tree was about 70 to 100 years old,” said Valley College security officer Michael Habicht. “It landed on top of the power lines, and each pole down the block snapped like toothpicks.”

At Burbank Airport, operations remained fairly normal, although some small private planes were knocked around by the wind, an airport spokesman said.

Airport officials said about a dozen pilots of commercial and private flights decided the wind was too strong to land at Burbank and went on to LAX or other local airports.

The Department of Water and Power asked about 10,000 customers in Sunland and Tujunga, in areas north of the Foothill Freeway and east of Mount Gleason Avenue, to conserve water today because of power outages affecting water pumping stations in the area.

“The DWP expects the return of full water service by no later than Tuesday afternoon if electric service is restored by Tuesday morning,” a spokesman said.

A home under construction for abused teenagers in Altadena went down “like a house of cards,” said staffer Elise Dorsey, who watched it fall.

Entire rows of utility poles were blown out of the ground in parts of the Inland Empire, and fallen power lines were suspected of causing a fire that caused about $100,000 damage in an Arcadia apartment complex.

Drivers in Arcadia and Van Nuys suffered minor injuries when trees fell on their vehicles. “It stopped the truck dead in its tracks, cracked the windshield and knocked me in the head,” said electrician John Saenz, 36, who was driving in Van Nuys. “I didn’t see it coming.”

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The highest gust--77 mph--was reported in Glendale, while gusts of 70 mph were reported in the Malibu hills. Elsewhere, winds reached 60 mph in mountain passes and held at 30 to 40 mph throughout much of the region, said Jon Erdman, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts to The Times.

He said the unusual winds were caused when high-pressure systems over Northern California and the Great Basin of Nevada met a low-pressure system south of Arizona.

The clockwise winds from the high-pressure systems combined with the counterclockwise winds from the low-pressure system “like an eggbeater with two blades that rotate and come together at the middle,” Erdman said. “California sits right where the blades come together.”

Times staff writers Angie Chuang, John Gonzales, Larry Gordon, Michael Granberry, David Haldane, Peter Y. Hong, Solomon Moore, Bob Pool, Martha Willman, Rich Simon, Eric Slater, Jeanne Feeney, David Colker, Efrain Hernandez and correspondents Darrell Satzman and Mayrav Saar contributed to this story.

* WINTRY GUSTS

Winds that blasted the region were cold Santa Anas. B1