Winds Batter Mobile Homes, Topple Trees, Cut Off Power

A powerful, tornadolike wind ripped through a pair of Westminster mobile home parks Friday night, knocking four homes from their foundations, shearing off aluminum awnings, toppling block walls and sending many of the trailer court’s elderly residents rushing into the rainy night.

No one was reported injured, but at least 40 mobile homes were destroyed or damaged when the winds, gusting up to 60 m.p.h., cut a wide swath of destruction through the twin trailer courts of Mission Del Amo and Kensington Gardens about 7:30 p.m., police said.

“At first I thought it was an earthquake,” said Marie Gansmann, a longtime resident of the Mission Del Amo park in the 9700 block of Bolsa Avenue. She said she then turned to a friend and yelled: “Let’s run for the front door. . . . It sounded like an airplane explosion.”

No damage estimates were available late Friday night, but residents in the parks said the mobile homes sold for about $50,000 each. Mission Del Amo had a total of 217 mobile homes; Kensington Gardens contained 120.

In addition, a nearby apartment building at the corner of Brookhurst Street and Bolsa Avenue, was slightly damaged by the wind.

Elsewhere, the band of wind-driven thundershowers that swept across Orange County at the close of the evening commute hour flooded streets, toppled trees and knocked out power to thousands of people from San Clemente to Fullerton. No deaths were reported from the fast-moving Arctic front, but there were several injuries caused by a rash of accidents that snarled traffic and turned the Friday commute into a nightmare.

A head-on collision on Coast Highway near Crystal Cove State Park forced a temporary closure of the four-lane coastal artery for nearly half an hour between Corona del Mar and Newport Beach, backing traffic up for miles in both directions. Details of the accident and number of injuries were sketchy, but at least three vehicles were involved.

The central and southern parts of the county were hardest hit by the downpour that raced off the Pacific Ocean and was dumping rain on some towns at a rate of an inch per minute.

Accompanying the thundershowers, which lasted about an hour before pushing eastward, were strong winds clocked at nearly 40 m.p.h. at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and the control tower at John Wayne Airport.

In Laguna Beach, dozens of tall eucalyptus trees were blown over.

“In some places it looks like the wind treated the trees like match sticks,” Sgt. Danell Adams said.

For a brief time, most of San Juan Capistrano was reportedly without power.

In Newport Beach, the storm hit at peak high tides. Powerful winds pushed the surging bay into low-lying neighborhoods and caused widespread minor street flooding, police said.

Officials in Westminster were at a loss to explain what turned two mobile home parks into a disaster scene.

“I’d like to tell you I knew exactly what happened,” said a puzzled Westminster Fire Battalion Chief Don Herr as he surveyed the twisted wreckage. Witnesses said the howling winds, pushing the rain horizontally, lasted for a minute.

In Mission Del Amo, the hardest hit of the two parks, four mobile homes were torn off foundations, 13 sustained major or moderate damage and 22 others had minor damage. Next door in Kensington Gardens, three trailers were seriously damaged and 19 had minor damage.

Home Started to Rock

Leonard and Alice Bell had just settled down for a night of TV when they felt their mobile home in Space No. 19 start rocking. Bell, a native Midwesterner, said he suspected the worst. By the time it was over, the couple had escaped but their coach was destroyed.

“We’ve been in tornadoes before,” he said. They planned to spend the night in their motor home, which was parked a block away and was not damaged.

Residents said they had little warning. Red Cross volunteers were at the scene Friday night, but none of the residents needed to be evacuated. Most of the residents left homeless were getting shelter from friends and relatives.

There were several gas leaks immediately after the storm. Officials said there was a potential for catastrophe, but the gas did not ignite.

First the Rain, Then Wind

A light rain had begun falling about 6 p.m., but it turned hard about 7:15--and then came the wind.

“We got all these calls saying there was a tornado,” a Westminster police dispatcher said. “But we kept thinking, ‘Naw, not in California.’ It was amazing.”

Chief Herr said the only injury was to a woman who fell from her wheelchair and slightly bruised her shoulder. She declined to be taken to the hospital.

He said he was amazed no one was hurt in the incident. “How does something like (no injuries) happen? I don’t know,” he said.

A roundup of the Southland storm. Part I, Page 1.