Violent Weather Rakes Southland

A late-season storm swept out of Southern California with a flourish Tuesday, spawning a gale in Paramount that snapped power poles, ripped off roofs and overturned a mobile home.

Before daybreak, darkness exploded as power transformers arced in white flashes and the wind wrenched aluminum siding from trailers and hurled it into the air.

By afternoon, meteorologists had determined that the phenomenon had not been a tornado, but a micro-burst--a furious downdraft of cold air.

Laura Peters, 18, was asleep when her mobile home began shuddering just after 4 a.m. as if it were in an earthquake. As she grabbed her cat, the television was launched off its shelf and she found herself rolling head over heels.

She landed on her feet, standing in what felt like a hole in the floor. It was, she soon realized, a window.

“I went out through another window and was like, ‘Oh, my trailer fell over,’ ” she said.

At dawn, parts of her neighborhood looked like a scrap yard, with scattered debris, crumpled awnings and shredded metal siding hung like laundry from power lines.

At least four homes in Paramount Mobile Village on Garfield Avenue were knocked off their stands and more than 30 were damaged, fire officials said. No injuries were reported.

The Red Cross set up a disaster center, and Paramount City Manager Pat West declared a local emergency, which will allow the city to receive state and county assistance, officials said. A spokesman for the city said several industrial buildings were also seriously battered.

Although much of the damage occurred in the Paramount, Bellflower and Compton areas, problems were spread throughout the county. The county Fire Department determined that the brunt of the storm cut a course northeast from Long Beach to Paramount and to Diamond Bar.

More than 17,000 customers lost power in the region, but all service was expected to resume by 6 p.m., said Southern California Edison officials. The Board of Supervisors directed the office of emergency services and other county departments to provide any help they could to local cities.

Lightning struck the side of a home in Altadena, and gusts toppled a eucalyptus tree more than 100 feet tall across all lanes of the southbound Santa Ana Freeway at Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk. The southbound freeway was closed and traffic backed up for miles until crews could cut up the tree.

In Diamond Bar, the winds uprooted half a dozen trees, tore off roof tiles and toppled two light poles. Several homes were damaged by the debris, officials said.

In the San Fernando Valley, a 19-year-old woman drove her car off the Hollywood Freeway and almost plunged into a flood control channel during heavy rains Tuesday morning, authorities said. She was not injured.

Meanwhile, marble-sized hail was reported throughout the county, as the cold weather system from the Gulf of Alaska pushed east.

At its peak Monday night, the storm flooded city streets and highways from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles and caused traffic collisions at the rate of 75 an hour, including one that involved 25 vehicles.

As darkness fell in Glendora, two teenage boys ventured into a wash to find a watch and were quickly overcome by waters gushing down from the mountains, officials said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department immediately got an emergency call about the boys, ages 14 and 16. A rescue helicopter swooped in and lowered Deputy Jim Harrell, who grabbed the boys one at a time and took them to safety.

The storm dropped 1.3 inches of rain in downtown Los Angeles, and more than 2 inches in Hollywood and Malibu. Woodland Hills received almost 4 inches of rain. The region’s total for the season still is about 3 inches below normal, said Stacey Johnstone, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc.

Today, a high-pressure ridge should bring sunny skies and temperatures in the upper 60s, giving residents of Paramount some time to clean up.

Officials said micro-bursts such as the one that hit Paramount occur during thunderstorms after warm air has risen and cooled in the higher atmosphere. As it cools, it gains density and rushes downward in a column to the ground. The National Weather Service estimated that winds reached 75 to 90 mph. Tornadoes periodically occur in Southern California, but mostly in the late afternoon when the atmosphere is more unstable, meteorologists said.

One witness in Paramount, however, said he peered out his window and saw debris swirling violently in the air, like a funnel cloud. The wind was whining and aluminum was rattling throughout the neighborhood, said Bob Kowalesky.

“It was getting closer and closer, and transformers started popping and debris started hitting the house,” he said. “That’s when I ducked.

“They’re saying it’s a windstorm. . . . It was a tornado.”

Whatever it was, it plowed through the area with a vengeance. After the sun came out Tuesday, Grady Sharp, 68, was assessing the damage at his home when a neighbor walked through his backyard and shrugged, looking confused.

“Where did these go?” he said, gesturing toward an empty spot on the street.

“The Dumpsters went that way,” said Sharp, pointing down the road. “One is down the street and I don’t even know where the other one is.”

Times staff writers Roberto Manzano and Eric Malnic and special correspondent Richard Winton contributed to this story.