Power Knocked Out in Pico Rivera : Light, Scattered Showers Hit Southland

Unstable air moving north from Mexico threw a thin band of thundershowers across the face of Southern California on Tuesday, dampening streets and watering a few summer-parched lawns here and there--and knocking out power in a part of Pico Rivera.

Rainfall was relatively light and scattered, ranging from .45 of an inch at Borrego and .01 at Cuyamaca Park in San Diego County. Most other parts of the Southland reported amounts in the .02- to .05-inch range--or remained bone dry.

And the rain’s effect was minimal: Police said traffic proceeded normally through the morning and evening rush hours, with no appreciable increase in the accident rate.

But wind associated with the disturbance was a different story. At 3:14 a.m., it knocked a tree into a guy wire between two Southern California Edison Co. poles in Pico Rivera, causing the guy wire to contact a major transmission line and leave 1,800 customers in darkness for about two hours.

Edison spokeswoman Debbie Van Ness said the power failure--originally attributed to lightning--was rectified in most places by 5:15 a.m., but Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Eldon Crowder said traffic lights were out for another hour--while a few burglar and fire alarms, triggered by the failure, continued to disturb the morning until shopkeepers and security teams arrived to turn them off.

The National Weather Service said there should be no more rain for a while.

By Tuesday afternoon, the thundershowers had rumbled away into the mountains and deserts (there were heavy rain warnings and flash-flood watches in effect from Reno to Globe, Ariz.), and meteorologists said low pressure along the coast should bring drier air into the area by this morning.

High temperature at Los Angeles Civic Center Tuesday was 81 degrees, with relative humidity ranging from a sopping 86% in the early morning to 52% by mid-afternoon. The Weather Service predicted a high of just 77 degrees for today, with night and morning low clouds giving way to fair skies before noon.