How Cold Was It? If You Say Plenty, You’re Warm

Roofs were leaking. Homeless shelters were jammed to capacity. Firewood sales were up, ice cream sales were down. Drivers on bald tires were finally shelling out for new ones. The flu bug and the ski bug were out in force.

All over Los Angeles, the signs of winter were apparent on Wednesday, as jarring, in their way, as a four-lane road closure.

The cold, rainy weather--with temperatures dropping into the 40s--was playing havoc with car washes and swap meets. Sidewalk cafes were closed. To gardeners, traffic officers and postal carriers, the conditions were a seasonal annoyance. For others, like Ed Marshall, who has endured six winters without a home, the raw breath of winter was something to be met with grim resolve.

“It just means more walking to stay warm,” Marshall, 33, said as he leaned against a wall of the Union Rescue Mission downtown, where the low sun slanted through gray, threatening skies. “In the winter is the best time to go to jail. You don’t have to sleep in the rain.”

Skid Row, where dilapidated hotels offer temporary shelter for the homeless, was a particularly busy place as the county activated its cold-weather emergency plan for the first time this year. Under the plan, which takes effect whenever temperatures drop below 50 degrees and it rains, seven National Guard armories are opened to hundreds of homeless men, women and families.

Even so, the down-and-out residents of Skid Row and its various shelters were scrambling to find ways to keep warm.

Las Familias del Pueblo, an organization that runs eight Skid Row hotels, was calling out city inspectors to turn on the heat and hurriedly distributing blankets and moral support. As always, coffee pots in the organization’s office were a ready barometer of discomfort on the street.

“Our coffee pots have been empty,” director Alice Callaghan said.

The cold was driving Los Angeles residents of all kinds indoors. Many found

their comfort at indoor matinee theaters, where it didn’t take a Tom Cruise to draw a crowd. The drive-through trade at A-1 Santa Monica Fuel Co., a firewood outlet, was something any burger chain would envy.

“I’m really jammed up right now,” said company owner Pat Corner. “The weather makes or breaks us. Naturally, today is very good.”

By mid-afternoon, more than 150 customers had come through, snapping up oak, eucalyptus and walnut that sells for up to $335 a cord. Corner figured to move six or seven cords before the day was out.

Tourism was down. Travel, to a large extent, was toward the mountains. At Craig’s Snow Job, a ski shop on Pico Boulevard, 150 sets of ski equipment were rapidly being reserved for the weekend. About half were already rented.

“Our ‘snow dances’ have finally paid off,” owner David Michels said. “We’ve had a steady flow of customers since we opened at 10 this morning. I came in early, 8:30, and the phone was definitely ringing off the hook.”

Surfers were among those rare people who considered themselves unaffected by the weather. If anything, the cold and the rain meant bigger waves, and so surfers were out at places such as Palos Verdes Cove and Haggerty’s, a surfing spot not far from there.

A steady crowd trickled through Becker Surfboards in Hermosa Beach. Manager John Leininger said the 4-to-5-foot swells were enough to have some surfers pricing new boards suited to larger waves.

“If the water gets cold and the air gets cold, people buy more wet suits,” he added. “It doesn’t slow the hard-core guys from participating in the sport.”

At the Los Angeles Zoo, the bears were treated like--well, like bears. They are dressed for any weather. But the bird shows were canceled. The apes and monkeys were kept in their barns. Like humans, the primates are susceptible to colds, spokesman Lora LaMarca said.