High winds rake Socal, topple trees, cut power

LOS ANGELES — High winds continued to raked parts of Southern California on Friday — toppling trees, sending palm fronds crashing down and causing power outages.

Affected areas impacted included the Los Angeles region and ranged west through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

Power outages affected more than 21,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers who lost electrical service overnight and several thousand Southern California Edison customers.

The north winds produced gusts well above 40 mph (64 kph) in many areas, and some locations had much higher blasts. A gust of 59 mph (95 kph) was registered in the Malibu Hills and one of 70 mph (113 kph) was recorded in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.

An early morning winddriven fire in the Exposition Park area of Los Angeles spread to palm trees and rained embers on the neighborhood before firefighters brought it under control. A home and vehicles were significantly damaged.

The National Weather Service said the northern winds would diminish during the afternoon and then shift to the northeast and transform into strong Santa Ana winds in the evening, increasing after midnight.