Santa Ana blast
High winds prompt power outages east of Canyon Country, send trees onto roads
Santa Ana winds ripped through the Santa Clarita Valley on Thursday, sending trees onto roadways, cars, trucks and buildings, as Southern California Edison enacted a series of intentional power outages to reduce fire danger.
Public works crews with the city of Santa Clarita responded to a large tree that crashed onto Magic Mountain Parkway, near McBean Parkway, shortly before 10 a.m.
Within the hour, first responders reported a tree falling onto Soledad Canyon Road in Canyon Country.
Five hours later, mid-afternoon, work crews were in Summit Park removing a tree that was uprooted and fell into the adjacent Las Ventanas condo tract, said Carrie Lujan, spokeswoman for the city of Santa Clarita.
While that work was underway, other work crews were busy removing another “full tree” that had toppled onto a car and overhead utility lines on Race Street at 6th Street, according to Lujan. Simultaneously, other crews were removing a tree limb that broke off and crashed to the ground near the intersection of Sierra Estates Drive and Whispering Leaves Drive, in Newhall.
The work followed a morning of public works orders for a dozen other locations, each reporting a tree having fallen.
Despite more than a dozen incidents of falling trees, there was no report of injury, according to officials at the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
And there was no report of a brush fire in the SCV as of Thursday afternoon.
Firefighters remained prepared, however, for strong winds and the possibility of brush fires as a result of those winds, forecast to arrive in the SCV with gusts between 45 and 75 mph.
At least 12,900 residents in Los Angeles County had their power purposely taken down Thursday morning, including residents in Acton, Agua Dulce and parts of Canyon Country.
“It’s been crazy,” Edison spokeswoman Susan Cox said about the first time the utility has cut the power to homes in light of brush fire danger.
Shortly after 11 a.m., power was reported out in the area of Grandifloras Road in Canyon Country.
More than 49,000 Edison customers in Los Angeles County, including an unspecified number in the SCV, were notified about the possibility of outages over the next couple of days, Edison spokesman David L. Song said Wednesday afternoon.
Song said it isn’t known when or where, or for how long, the outages will take place.
The bottom line, he said, is that as long as the red flag warning remains in place, the possibility of outages remains in place.
Edison’s outline of current and potential outages, with links to maps of specific areas that could be affected, can be found on the electric company’s website at https://www.scemaintenance.com/content/ sce-maintenance/en/psps. html.