Santa Ana Winds Topple Trees, Knock Out Power

Santa Ana winds toppled trees and knocked out electrical power across Orange County on Tuesday, and high wind advisories were issued in parts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Gusts as strong as 75 mph were registered in some areas of Orange County. Average winds were clocked between 35 and 45 mph, with coastal areas reporting 25 to 35 mph, said Brad Doyle, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in San Diego.

Inland, driving became so hazardous that the California Highway Patrol issued an advisory along the 50-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Desert Center to Blythe. Travel was not recommended for campers and trailers in that area, and drivers were warned to use extreme caution because of blowing dust and reduced visibility.

Freeway connectors at eastbound Interstate 60 to northbound Interstate 15, and at southbound 15 to eastbound 60 were closed most of the day.

In Orange County, Doyle said, 75-mph winds were recorded in the passes and canyons.

“Wind this strong can down trees,” he said. “If the trees fall on power lines, they can cause [outages or] damage to vehicles if they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Southern California Edison reported outages in Orange County that were probably wind-related.

“Whenever the wind kicks up, we typically get momentary circuit interruptions with wires slapping together, trees brushing up against our poles or debris blowing up into our lines,” said Tom Boyd, spokesman for Southern California Edison headquarters in Rosemead.

The largest outage occurred about 8:45 a.m., when more than 4,000 customers in Costa Mesa suffered a quick power loss when wires were blown down.