Winds Topple Wall, Hurting 2 Men

Two construction workers were injured Friday when wind knocked over a 20-foot-tall wall at a commercial development in Chino.

High winds also felled trees, knocked out power and snarled traffic across the Inland Valley.

Two men on scaffolding atop a masonry wall were trapped when gusts up to 40 mph toppled the wall at about 11 a.m. Co-workers freed the men, one of whom suffered a broken leg. The other had minor injuries.

The 75-foot-long wall was to have been one side of a store in the future shopping mall on Pipeline Avenue.

Power lines were downed by falling trees in Rancho Cucamonga, cutting power to 2,000 homes, a Southern California Edison spokesman said. A smaller outage affected about 200 customers in Fontana.

Wind also blew over a big-rig truck on the newly opened transition road from the westbound 210 Freeway to the southbound Interstate 15 shortly after 5 p.m. No one was hurt, but the California Highway Patrol decided to close the transition road indefinitely when winds prevented them from righting the truck. All traffic was diverted to the northbound I-15.

High-profile trucks had been rerouted earlier in the day to avoid that stretch of I-15, CHP Officer Cynthia Martinez said. Big-rig drivers had to take Interstate 215 instead of I-15 to the Cajon Pass. Winds reached 60 mph in the pass, and a wind advisory was in place, Martinez said.

The winds were caused by a high pressure system over the Rocky Mountains, coinciding with a low to the northwest, Weather Central meteorologist Bennett Ozminkowski said.

Winds out of the northeast blew steadily at 25-35 mph, with gusts to 50 mph during the day, Ozminkowski said.

He predicted they would stay strong today, with steady winds at 20-30 mph and gusts to 40 mph.

Ozminkowski said the winds would die down tonight.