Pesky Southland Winds to Lose Their Bluster by the Weekend

The winds that whistled across Southern California, blacked out thousands of homes, downed trees and made desert driving hazardous are expected to diminish tonight as the Rocky Mountain storm system spawning them moves into the central plains.

In the San Joaquin Valley, wind-whipped dirt cut visibility to zero and caused a chain of accidents that killed at least four people and injured an estimated 16 others on Thursday afternoon. Two small children were among the dead.

The weekend should be calm, said the National Weather Service, after an upper-level, high-pressure ridge settles in over the Southland. Saturday and Sunday will be slightly warmer with clear skies.

The Los Angeles area probably will have some more local northerly winds of 25 to 35 m.p.h. today, however. The high downtown temperature should be near 78 degrees. On Saturday, it is expected to be about 80. Thursday’s Civic Center high was 78 after an overnight low of 68. The high relative humidity was a mere 16% and the low was 10%.

Power Outages

About 75,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers were without electricity at one point or another after the winds sprang up Wednesday night to send branches and trees crashing into wires. Only a few hundred were still powerless by Thursday afternoon. By night, however, the number was back up to about 2,000. The outages were widely scattered throughout Los Angeles, said DWP spokeswoman Elizabeth Wimmer, but much of the trouble was in the San Fernando Valley.

Southern California Edison Co., which had about 20,000 customers without power at various times, had most outages restored by midday with the exception of some locations in the Antelope Valley.

Thursday night, as winds picked up again in many areas, a 41-year-old DWP line crewman suffered burns on his fingers while attempting to repair a fallen 4,800-volt line in an alley in Reseda. The man, who was not immediately identified, was being treated at Northridge Hospital for minor to serious injuries.

Fierce winds and blowing dirt from recently plowed fields made it impossible for motorists to see Thursday as they drove across Merced County farmland on California 152. At least four people died when more than 30 cars and trucks slammed into each other about 18 miles east of Los Banos shortly after noon.

California Highway Patrol information officer Bob Arnold in Los Banos said an estimated 16 other people were injured and taken to hospitals throughout the area by half a dozen ambulances. It was evening before a dozen tow trucks managed to clear the wreckage and the winds subsided enough to permit reopening of the four-lane highway.

The CHP identified the dead as Buddy Puentes, 4; Angelita Lopez, 50; Rose Lopez, 31, and Unica Lopez, 3, all of Los Banos.

65-M.P.H. Gusts

Winds tapered off in the western San Joaquin Valley by Thursday night, but were still strong in the Mojave area, where there were gusts reported up to 65 m.p.h.

Travelers’ advisories remained in effect for much of the Southland deserts and mountains. The strong wind conditions also existed in the southern Sierra Nevada, in Northern and Central California and in Nevada and Arizona.

Wilshire Boulevard had to be closed between Centinela Avenue and Bundy Drive in West Los Angeles early Thursday after several large pieces of sheet metal from a 22-story building under construction were ripped off by the wind and fell into the street. A large crane atop the building was rocked from side to side, prompting evacuation of a nearby motel.

A gale warning was issued Thursday afternoon for the outer coastal waters from Point Conception to San Nicolas Island, where gusts up to 40 knots and combined seas 15 to 20 feet were expected. A small craft advisory for gusty north-to-northeast winds 20 to 39 knots was in effect from Point Conception to the Mexican border. Those winds are expected to decrease this afternoon.