Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Southern California braces for more extreme wind storms
Workers repair power lines downed by heavy winds at Temple City in
California, December 3, 2011. Heavy winds returned to the Los
Angeles area early Saturday as over 100,000 homes and businesses
lost power due to fallen trees and other damage from an ongoing
windstorm. REUTERS/Gene Blevins
By Mary Slosson
LOS ANGELES | Sun Dec 4, 2011 4:04pm EST
(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Southern California residents
remained without power on Sunday as officials warned that
dangerously high winds would return to the region in the evening.
Power company Southern California Edison still had 49,874
customers without power as of Sunday morning due to the "near
hurricane force winds" of recent days, according to spokeswoman
Mashi Nyssen.
Wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour through area mountain passes
and canyons were expected to begin again late Sunday and last
through early Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
The winds will create "critical" conditions that will pose an
"extreme fire danger" to the area, the NWS said.
Unusually powerful winds first began striking the Los Angeles
region on Wednesday in a storm that raised concern about potential
wildfires igniting and spreading at lightening speed.
Wind gusts of up to 45 miles per hour were reported close to the
metropolis over the weekend.
In the city of Los Angeles, power had been restored to "nearly
all" customers who suffered outages in the wind storms, according
to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.
The dry, seasonal gusts that have hit Southern California in
recent days are known locally as the Santa Ana winds.
(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)