A BLAST: Plants suffer when the Santa...

A BLAST: Plants suffer when the Santa Ana winds blow (N1), but in the old days that was the least of people’s worries. . . . Without buildings to act as a buffer, old-time “devil winds” were more powerful. In the 1870s and ‘80s, they derailed a train near Orange, toppled the Silverado School house and knocked over the Quaker church in El Modena. . . . The winds became so infamous that in 1901 the Associated Press swallowed a hoax and reported that virtually all of Santa Ana had blown away.