Strong Winds Leave Thousands Without Power On Christmas Day
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Thousands of residents were without power Thursday morning as strong winds affected several areas across Los Angeles County.
According to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, about 7,200 customers were without power shortly before 8:30 p.m., which significantly lowered from the 11,500 originally affected by the outages.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department reported that crews responded around 4:00 a.m. to the 3800 block of 112th Street in Inglewood, and 166th Street near Freeman in Lawndale, where several trees fell into wires, causing outages in both areas.
Another tree was reported down across Olympic Boulevard between Highland Avenue and Longwood, which caused power outages and lane closures in the Wilshire area, LAPD officers explained.
In South L.A., where a fallen tree downed power lines, blocked the road and crushed two SUV's near East 23rd and South Los Angeles streets. No one was hurt.
And in Granada Hills, one family became trapped inside their home as a huge pine tree fell in their driveway, located at Densmore Avenue and Kingsbury Street.
Crews are working to restore the outages, however, it was unclear when power is expected to be turned back on.
Officials explained several areas including Hollywood Hills, Chinatown, Echo Park, Cheviot Hills, Hyde Park, Century City and Westwood were affected by the outage.
Strong winds sent a shower of flames and sparks blowing through the air in Mid-City when a palm tree was blown into the path of power lines. It happened Thursday at Venice Boulevard and South Mansfield Avenue. Firefighters kept the flames from spreading.
A downed tree in Cheviot Hills startled residents around 3 a.m. when winds ripped it out of the earth. The massive tree fell right up to the front porch of a home on Monte Mar Drive near the Hillcrest Country Club. No injuries or major structural damage was reported, according to CBS2/KCAL9's Jasmine Viel.
In L.A.'s Del Rey neighborhood, a tree fell on a house. A neighbor said the wind was howling louder than she's ever heard when the tree came down.
And in Rancho Park, a tree landed on a house in the 2600 block of Midvale Avenue.
