Windpocalypse Now: Hair Mussed, Trees Downed, Water Out, Power Off

When we heard the mighty Santa Anas might get up to 85mph this week, that sounded like crazy talk until the storm blew through and hit speeds of up to 97 mph up in the mountains and 55 mph down in Beverly Hills. (And the National Weather Service says, there's more where that came from.)

Here's our round-up of the destruction that hit the Southland, which we're following on Twitter because we're lucky enough to have power AND water.

5:00pm: What did "Windpocalypse Then" look like? We posted photos from the Los Angeles Examiner archives of wind-whipped damage of yesteryear.

4:19pm The UC system is offering an extension for procrastinating applicants whose power went out last night before the midnight deadline.

4:03pm San Gabriel residents who are California-American Water customers are warned not to drink their tap water.

3:31pm: The mayor says 400 traffic lights are still out in Los Angeles, so be careful as you head home.

3:21pm: Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has declared a state of emergency, which will allow the county to tap into federal and state money.

1:45pm: Southern California Edison says that 226,000 of its customers in the foothills, Torrance and San Gabriel Valley are without power. If you add DWP and Pasadena Water and Power customers, at least 369,000 Southern Californians don't have power.

1:35pm: Pasadena, which closed down its schools today, plans to close them tomorrow as well due to wind damage. Same goes for students in Arcadia.

1:31pm: Most of the residents of South Pasadena have running water again, but it might be a little murky.

The San Gabriel Valley and some eastern Los Angeles neighborhoods got hit especially hard. About 138,000 DWP customers—many of them on the eastside—were without power this morning. The Los Angeles Times estimates that 340,000 were without power in the region. Things were even worse in South Pasadena, where half of the residents don't have water (in addition to not having power).

In Pasadena, the epicenter of the windstorm, 42 units have been red-tagged because of damage caused fallen trees. That number is expected to rise, because crews haven't even gotten around to inspecting all the damaged buildings.

The local animal shelter in Pasadena (like the rest of the city) has gone into emergency mode. They've gotten reports of peacocks falling out of trees, as well as dogs and cats running away.

For a geographic snapshot of how the windstorm swept through the region last night, check out the collaborative map by KPCC above (and add your own tales of woe).

Some Kansan living in California complained to KPCC host Larry Mantle about how much Angelenos suck at dealing with bad weather:

(To be fair, we do the same thing to our East Coast friends when they freak out about an itty-bitty 5 point whatever earthquake.)Possible silver lining: The winds might help get rid of the invasive tiger mosquito. We're also keeping our eyes peeled for celebrity "wind bathers." (No, not really. That's gross.) And of course some kids got to take the day off (and at least one mall invited the kiddies to use the day off to shop).