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Santa Ana winds: Thousands still in dark as winds blow again
Southern California Edison workers trying to restore power at the intersection of Live Oak Ave and Baldwin Ave in Temple City.
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Corey Moore/KPCC
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A worker from J&J Tree Removal Service scales the remnants of a cedar tree in Santa Monica.
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Brian Watt/KPCC
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Beginning at 6 a.m., much of the L.A. area was under another red flag warning, with high winds expected again, though they were not supposed to be quite as dramatic as the winds that downed tons of trees and cut off power to a quarter million last Wednesday and Thursday.
The warning, indicating a chance of destructive fire, applied to the San Gabriel and Santa Monica mountains, Angeles National Forest, the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys, along the Orange and Los county coast, and in metro L.A. — including downtown and the Hollywood Hills. Gusts there could be up to 45 mph. The warning is in effect until Tuesday evening.
Last week’s red flag warnings produced not highly destructive fires, but simply general destruction, especially in the San Gabriel Valley where cleanup is still continuing. Lucky for the SGV, it should be spared by Monday’s new set of winds.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced over the weekend it had restored power to the hundreds of thousands who lost it, and and SoCal Edison was still working Monday morning to restore power to the about 30,000 still living in the dark. As of 2 p.m., So Cal Edison still had over 20,000 customers without power. The storm downed 106 power poles, 362 spans of power wire and damaged 60 transformers in the So Cal Edison power grid.
“ ... We've been working 24/7 to restore power from last week's major winds,'' SoCal Edison spokeswoman Lois Pitter Bruce told City News Service. "If all goes well, we should have 99.9 percent of customers restored by about 8 p.m. tonight.'' SoCal Edison officials told KPCC's Corey Moore in Temple City that they hoped to have power fully restored by Tuesday morning.
Did they work fast enough?
This story has been updated.
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