Wind wreaks light damage in La Cañada Flintridge
A system of high-powered Santa Ana winds lowered temperatures and toppled trees in La Cañada Flintridge Friday, causing light damage to at least one vehicle and a home on Hillard Avenue, city officials reported this week.
Crews sent out by La Cañada’s Public Works Department made quick work of removing downed trees reported by local residents. In addition to calls of trees falling on private properties at Fairmount Avenue, Vista Miguel Drive and Hampstead Road, Public Works Director Edward Hitti said three reports of city trees falling were made on Alminar Street, Hillard Avenue and Foothill Boulevard.
The Hillard incident involved a deodar cedar that fell on a home, while the tree on Foothill fell on a car parked in front of St. Bede Catholic Church.
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Michelle Brown was picking up her son from St. Bede School around 1 p.m. Friday when a dry sycamore became uprooted and was blown onto the passenger side of her Ford Edge SUV.
“I was sitting in the car, flipping through a magazine when it fell,” Brown said Friday as she waited for public works crews to remove the fallen tree. “It was like slow motion — it wasn’t really dramatic.”
Weather forecasters told the Los Angeles Times the meteorological event was the result of a rare combination of cold air from Utah moving over the Southwest and a low pressure system from Baja, California.
While some reports clocked San Gabriel Valley winds at speeds as high as 75 mph, local estimates from the weather station at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory put La Cañada gusts in the 30 to 40 mph range, spokesman Alan Buis confirmed Tuesday.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
