Winds Snap Power Poles, Blocking Road : Weather: Gusts of up to 60 m.p.h. lead to the closure of San Fernando Road, causing a daylong outage for about 4,000 customers in the East Valley.

Strong winds that buffeted the Southland on Wednesday wreaked havoc in the east San Fernando Valley, where gusts up to 60 m.p.h. knocked down 13 power poles, forced closure of a portion of San Fernando Road and left about 4,000 customers without power for most of the day.

At least two power poles were snapped in half and at least four others were bent along San Fernando Road, which was cordoned off all day between Osborne and Branford streets while repair crews worked to bolster the wooden poles. No injuries were reported in connection with the downed power lines.

Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Mindy Berman estimated that more than 40 crews hoped to have the poles repaired so that the roadway could be reopened this morning. Power was restored to most customers by 5 p.m. Wednesday.

One of the poles snapped in front of a 10-shop mini-mall on the closed portion of San Fernando Road. Wires dangled from it while adjoining poles leaned precariously like a set of dominoes about to fall. DWP officials said there was no danger because the power was cut off soon after the 5 a.m. breakage.

Berman said the affected customers were scattered within an area bounded by the Golden State Freeway, Foothill Freeway and Sheldon Street. The 12100 block of Foothill Boulevard was also closed for several hours because of downed power poles but was reopened by 2 p.m., she said.

Tom Dell, superintendent for the DWP’s Sun Valley distribution headquarters, which oversees the affected area, said Sylmar and Pacoima are particularly susceptible to wind damage because nearby mountains form a canyon-like area.

The National Weather Service in Los Angeles issued high-wind warnings Wednesday for the northern mountains and areas below the canyons, where winds gusted between 35 and 45 m.p.h., with occasional gusts to 60 m.p.h.

The East Valley was particularly hard hit along with portions of Orange County, Malibu and Riverside.

Mini-mall owner Ramon Curiel, who operates a van conversion shop at the site, said the broken lines damaged two signs and strong winds knocked off track two roll-up garage doors and shattered windows. At least three cars in the shops were also slightly damaged. He estimated total damage at more than $20,000.

Some merchants along the closed portion of San Fernando Road were open for business, but had few if any customers.

“I haven’t had a car all day,” said Angie Pulido, manager of Rudy’s Auto & Tire Center near Osborne Street and San Fernando Road. “A lot of our business is from people driving down the street. I wish they would hurry and open up the street.”

In Pacoima, a family was awakened by the crashing sound of a tree smashing into two of their cars, which were parked on the 10300 block of Norris Avenue.

Carmen Rojas said she had difficulty sleeping early Wednesday because of concern over the Persian Gulf crisis. She said that about 4 a.m. she heard a loud crash and awakened two adult sons. When they looked out the door, they saw that a large tree had been uprooted by the wind and had crashed onto two family cars.

“What could we do?” Rojas said in Spanish. “Nothing. So my sons just called friends to give them a ride to work, and they’ll deal with this later.”