Thousands Hit Beach, Force Wave of Rescues

The high temperatures and muggy conditions that have hit Southern California sent thousands of people to beaches to cool off in dangerously high surf Tuesday, prompting more than 200 rescues including one in Newport Beach after a powerful rip current took 10 to 15 people out to sea.

“One second everyone was standing there and one second later, ka boom, everyone is 50 yards out,” said Lt. Jim Turner, spokesman for Newport Beach lifeguards. “We called in a boat, and had a lifeguard and the deck hand dive in while the boat operator tossed out flotation devices to victims. In three minutes, we got everyone on land breathing hard and tired, but safe.”

While lifeguards were busy making sure swimmers were safe, air-conditioning repair businesses were rescuing people whose tempers flared because of the continuing heat wave.

“People get mean when they’re hot; they get mean and ornery,” said Nada Blackwell, from Blackwell’s air-conditioning company in Laguna Hills.

Blackwell, whose company fielded dozens of calls for service, said customers were upset, demanding and frustrated because of the heat.

Temperatures will remain hot for the next day or two before a slight cooling trend moves in.

“For tomorrow, you can expect another hot day, maybe a few notches cooler, but again warm,” said Scott Breit, with WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. “You’re going to have to endure another warm day and night.”

The high in Santa Ana on Tuesday was 89 degrees, substantially cooler than Monday’s 93, which tied an earlier record. Irvine was the hottest in Orange County with 91, WeatherData said. Anaheim had 90, Newport Beach, 79, San Juan Capistrano, 76 and Dana Point, 78.

A day after power consumption in the state set a record, utility officials urged customers to lower their usage by setting air conditioners at 78 degrees rather than 70 because power reserves were running low, said Steve Hansen, a Southern California Edison spokesman. Tuesday’s peak usage was 18,900 megawatts, about 200 megawatts shy of Monday’s record.

“This doesn’t mean we’ve run out of power for customers,” said John Ballance, an Edison spokesman. “But to avoid getting to that point, we ask customers well in advance of that possibility to be more prudent with discretionary electricity use.” John Sibley, administrator of county facilities, ordered that lights in offices and buildings be turned off to help lessen the load on consumption, said Bill Reiter, county operations supervisor.

“We don’t want people stumbling in the dark,” Reiter said, “but we’re going through and shutting lights out in our unused trailers, offices and warehouses.”

On Monday, California customers recorded the highest demand ever for power with 44,900 megawatts in areas served by Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Power companies also suggested customers avoid cooling unoccupied rooms, homes, or buildings, delay doing laundry and using dishwashers until the evening, turn lights off when not in use, use curtains and blinds to shade home and office interiors, and avoid unnecessary opening of refrigerators, which eats up electricity.

At Orange County beaches, thousands of people found safe haven from hot inland temperatures. But lifeguards said high surf generated from Hurricane Estelle in the Pacific Ocean and another storm off New Zealand created 5- to 8-foot breakers on south-facing beaches that led to numerous rescues.

“We have lateral currents taking people sideways and then they get hit by rip currents that take them out seaward,” said Turner, of Newport Beach.

Newport Beach lifeguards made 150 rescues, down slightly from Monday’s 162, which was more than those made Saturday and Sunday combined.

In Huntington Beach, lifeguards made 30 rescues, up from 24 on Monday. But they said they had more than 350 “preventable actions,” incidents where lifeguards tell people of dangerous conditions before swimmers enter the water.

Other lifeguard agencies reported more than 85 rescues.

Elsewhere around the county, people bought fans, air conditioners and garden hoses to keep cool. The heat also prompted a rush for air-conditioning repair firms.

For Ellen Aranza, a cashier at DeNault’s hardware store in San Clemente, her morning walk to work was torturous.

“You better believe it was hotter than heck out there,” said Aranza, who spent the rest of Tuesday in an air-conditioned store. “We sold lots of garden sprinklers today and hoses; apparently people are worried about their lawns drying up and using hoses not only to water gardens but spraying down their kids and dogs.”

Pet owners should be cautious in hot weather, said Lt. Barbara Morrison, from the county animal control office.

“We’re getting calls from people with overheated animals and also reports of animals in locked cars,” Morrison said. “But by the time we get there to the car, the owner usually has returned.”

The heat is particularly bothersome for rabbits and other rodents, such as guinea pigs. Morrison suggested that pet owners freeze bottles of water and place them in cages so the animals can lie on them and cool off.

Also, Morrison suggested that people with larger animals leave two water bowls out and never put water in metal containers because they heat up. If possible, she recommended giving pets summer haircuts and moving doghouses out of the sun’s rays.

“Is the heat affecting car breakdowns? The answer is yes,” said Automobile Club of Southern California spokeswoman Carol Thorp

In the 13 Southern California counties that Auto Club services, she said, “Our calls were up approximately 25% yesterday [over normal]. Most of them were for tows; some of them were for tire changes. One thing we find is [that] in hot weather, people don’t like to change their own tires, so they call us.”

Times staff writers Nancy Wride and Robert Ourlian contributed to this report.