Southland Bakes 2nd Day: Little Relief Before Sunday : L.A. May Be Hottest Spot in Nation

A record-smashing heat wave blistered Southern California for the second straight day today, with the mercury soaring to a record 102 by 1 p.m in Santa Ana.

Forecasters said little relief is expected before Sunday. The 1 p.m. reading in El Toro was 101 and the Los Angeles Civic Center had hit 99 by that hour, well on the way to a predicted high of 104 in Los Angeles.

The forecasters said Los Angeles--or some other community in the area--might well be the hottest spot in the nation today. Temperatures are expected to peak in the high 90s through Saturday, before dipping into the high 70s Sunday.

Today’s predicted highs included 104 in Montebello and Monterey Park; 103 in Van Nuys, El Monte and San Gabriel; 102 in Inglewood, Culver City, Long Beach, Northridge, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Pomona; 101 in Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, and 100 in Westwood, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Azusa, Covina, Canoga Park and Woodland Hills.

That’s even hotter than it was Tuesday, when the thermometer peaked at 100 at the Los Angeles Civic Center, breaking the old record for the date, also set in 1971, by 7 degrees. Other top readings Tuesday included 101 in San Gabriel, Long Beach and Monrovia and 100 in Culver City, Montebello and Ontario.

Southern California Edison Co. officials were bracing for another surge in power usage today.

Beach ‘Hot .. Crowded’

Tuesday’s peak usage of 12,663 megawatts was the highest ever for an April day, according to officials of the utility. Don Bailey, regional affairs manager for the company, said Edison’s all-time record is 15,987 megawatts, set in September, 1988, when the temperature hit 110 degrees.

“It’s all for air conditioning,” Bailey said. “Everybody’s trying to keep cool.”

Lifeguards at Zuma Beach called in reserves to handle the expected influx of beach-goers.

“It’s hot and it’s going to get crowded,” lifeguard Craig Mattox said.

Officials in Santa Monica said today’s beach crowds there should be at least as big as on Tuesday, when about 50,000 people showed up.

“We’re cooking Italian food for 100 people today, and that means pasta, and that means steam,” said Carla Holland, 35, a cook/driver for a catering truck serving a film crew in downtown Los Angeles. “It’ll be about 140 degrees in here when we get the steam tables, grills and ovens going.”

‘One Small ... Fan’

Holland and her assistant, Jerry Sullivan, 32, both draped towels, which had been dipped in ice water, around their necks. In addition, they kept sidling up to a 9-inch fan in the cramped truck, which was parked in a lot off the 100 block of West 5th Street.

“We’ve got one small electric fan,” Sullivan said. “I’ll be dreaming about Lake Arrowhead, or taking a cold shower.”

Elsewhere downtown, some Los Angeles Department of Water and Power personnel working on a 34,500-volt power cable in a sun-baked manhole under Main Street explained how they survive such weather.

“There’s not a whole lot you can do except stay in the shade and drink lots of fluids,” said electrician Richard Boyd, 34. “But if you are working down in a hole and it gets real hot, you can pour cold water from a jug full of ice over your wrists.”