3 Truckers Killed as Winds Wreak Havoc on Roads

Santa Ana winds, gusting up to 100 m.p.h. in spots, bowled over at least eight trucks in the Southland on Tuesday, killing three people, the California Highway Patrol said.

Two Florida men died when their tractor-trailer rig, traveling east on Interstate 8, 40 miles east of San Diego, was struck by a 75-m.p.h. wind blast, lifting the trailer off the pavement and flipping the rig over a guardrail near the Buckman Springs Road overpass.

Walter R. Graham, 55, was killed instantly. Marion U. Follett, 43, the driver, died en route to a hospital, officials said.

Interstate 8 was closed along a 35-mile stretch between Alpine and Jacumba for about 3 1/2 hours, the CHP said.

A 37-year-old truck driver from Orme, Utah, was killed instantly when a gust caught his twin-trailer rig at 4:30 a.m. and threw it into the guardrail of the interchange of Interstates 15 and 10 in Ontario, CHP Officer Weston Taylor said. The rig plunged nose first about 60 feet to the ground, crushing the driver, whose name was withheld until relatives could be notified.

Only a few minutes later, the wind caught a second big rig at the same spot, flopping it on its side, and throwing one trailer over the side, where it dangled precariously over the wreckage of the first truck. The driver of the second truck leaped to safety and was unhurt, Taylor said.

Gusts of 60 m.p.h. were reported at Ontario International Airport and as high as 100 m.p.h. in Rialto.

CHP Officer John Anderson said the wind created a “sailing effect” on the sides of truck-trailer rigs and other slab-sided vehicles, throwing them out of control and sometimes overturning them.

In Orange County, winds gusting up to 39 m.p.h. knocked down power lines, blew a 150-year-old oak tree onto two Silverado Canyon houses and prompted the county Fire Department to reschedule its annual Christmas tree burn.

On Belha Way, an oak tree crashed through the bedroom of one house, damaged a corner of the roof of another, briefly blacked out power to the block and closed off the road in Silverado Canyon Tuesday afternoon, a county Fire Department spokesman said.

Crashed Through Window

The oak caused $4,000 damage to the home of Dolores Maldonado, who was in another part of the house when a portion of the tree tore through her bedroom window, public information officer Pat Antrim said.

The tree also caused $1,000 damage to the house next door, where no one was home at the time. In addition to damaging a corner of the roof, the tree ripped out an electrical panel and knocked down a wooden fence between the two houses, Antrim said.

Telephone and electrical service was knocked out to the Belha Way residents, but power was soon restored to all but the second damaged house.

Elsewhere throughout the county, the blustery weather caused brief power outages in 10,000 homes and businesses as winds knocked trees into power lines, said Southern California Edison Co. spokesman Gene Carter. Telephone service also was affected in scattered locations, said Pacific Telephone spokesman Michael Runzler.

Tree Burn Canceled

The winds also prompted the county Fire Department to cancel its Tuesday night Christmas tree burn, an annual igniting of discarded yule trees. The burn has been rescheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, Antrim said. Residents can continue to deliver their old trees to the burn site in Irvine at Alton Parkway and East Yale Loop, he said. The discarded trees now cover an area about the size of a football field, he said.

He warned that residents who plan to bring their trees the night of the burn should store them outdoors in the meantime, and not indoors, where they pose a serious fire hazard.

Winds of 28 m.p.h. were reported at noon Tuesday in El Toro and Santa Ana, with gusts up to 39 m.p.h. Daytime temperatures reached 74 degrees in Santa Ana and 71 degrees in El Toro, the National Weather Service said.

The Santa Ana condition also caused an unusual 18-degree climb in temperatures during one hour in El Toro Monday night, the weather service said. At 9 p.m., El Toro reported the temperature at 56 degrees; but the sudden onset of warm winds pushed the mercury to 74 degrees at 10 p.m., they said.

Injured by Power Pole

In Buena Park, a signalman for Southern Pacific Railroad suffered an injured right wrist and shoulder Tuesday morning while repairing downed power lines around the tracks in Buena Park, the city fire department reported. A maintenance truck snagged the fallen lines and pulled down a power pole, which struck the worker, R. J. Reynolds, 36, said railroad and fire spokesmen.

In Santa Ana, firefighters battling a 4 a.m. blaze Tuesday at a vacant house at 1409 N. Durant St. called in additional help to protect surrounding residences because of the high winds. The fire was confined to the one house, which sustained $20,000 in damage, and the cause of the blaze is under investigation, said Capt. Ernie Hoest.

Small-craft warnings were issued along the coast because of the winds, and at John Wayne Airport, flights by small planes decreased markedly, tower chief Ralph Odenwald said.

Gusts of 35 knots--about 40 m.p.h.--were measured at the airport, and wind warnings were issued, he said. Some pilots reported moderate turbulence, he added.

The airport averages 1,300 to 1,700 takeoffs and landings daily, but Odenwald said he expected no more than about 1,100 Tuesday because of the wind. Commercial flight schedules were not affected, he said.

In Riverside County, the winds also caused havoc along a six-mile stretch of the Pomona Freeway between Milliken Avenue and Pedley Street.

Vehicles Overturned

Two big rigs, two smaller trucks, a mobile home and a delivery van were overturned by wind blasts, CHP Officer Anderson said. No serious injuries resulted.

There were no reports of wind-related accidents in Los Angeles County, where the Santa Anas topped at only about 20 m.p.h.

Nearly 90,000 people from Ventura County to San Bernardino County were without power for varying periods during the day because of wind-related outages, utility officials said.

“This is a classic Santa Ana condition brought on by the presence of a high-pressure system over the Western states,” National Weather Service forecaster Stan Massy said Tuesday.

The winds should decrease by this morning, he said.