Storm Fells Trees, Cuts Power, and More

Last night’s winter storm included high winds, cold temperatures and lots and lots of rain…resulting in several downed trees in the Windsor Square and Larchmont Village areas, fallen tree limbs and branches, more than the usual number of scattered palm fronds, large puddles, power outages and more.

Perhaps the most noticeable inconvenience to Larchmontonians this morning was the continuing power outage on the east side of the Larchmont shopping district, just south of Beverly Blvd., where a car hit a utility pole and street sign last night. The accident knocked out power, closed southbound Larchmont, clogged traffic and forced the closure of many businesses today.

Also, at least four mature trees have fallen in the neighborhood. One on the 100 block of S. Larchmont Blvd…

…one at 5th and Arden…

…another on the 500 block of N. Beachwood Ave…

…and a fourth (that we know of so far) on Rimpau, north of Olympic:

Meanwhile, other trouble spots in the neighborhood included downed tree limbs, branches, and palm fronds, making it tricky to navigate local streets…

…lots of big puddles…

…and lots and lots of palm fronds — including all of these on just one block at 9th and Victoria in Windsor Village.

In addition to the Larchmont Blvd. power outage, we’ve heard reports of lengthy outages near Wilcox and Melrose, Irving Blvd. south of Beverly, the 200 block of S. St. Andrews, the LA Tennis Club, and more. LADWP says it’s aware of the issues and is working to restore power as soon as possible. According to a statement released this morning:

“At 10:30 PM Friday night, less than 7,000 customers were affected by power outages across the City. However, when strong winds picked up, power outages increased and climbed to a high of 78,000 by 1 AM.”

Also, according to LADWP:

“Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews worked through pouring rain and strong winds overnight to restore power to customers affected by storm-related power outages. As of 10AM Saturday morning, power had been restored to over 52,000 customers, while approximately 66,500 other customers remained without power out of LADWP’s 1.5 million electric customers.”

The statement says crews are continuing to work on both power restoration and tree cleanup, though it “may take 24-48 hours before a crew can respond to make repairs.”

“While we know this is an extended period of time and a significant inconvenience for our customers, we want to assure everyone affected that we’re working hard to get power restored. The weather, crew safety and the complexity of some repairs related to downed trees will largely determine how quickly we are able to get power restored,” said Brian Wilbur, Senior Assistant General Manager – Power System, in the official statement.

In the same vein, City Council District 5 also sent out a statement about the outages, saying, “Unfortunately we cannot give a timeline [for repairs] at this time. LADWP is currently at the highest level category of grid disruptions with over 65k folks experiencing outages and cannot provide timelines as they’re assessing grid damage across the city. Thank you for your patience and any reassurance you can give folks that while it will take time, that LADWP/CD5 is aware and working on outages across the grid. This storm definitely packed a punch :/.”

If your power does go out, you can report it at ladwp.com/outages or by 1-800-DIAL-DWP (1-800-342-5397). You can also watch for LADWP updates at ladwpnews.com and via Twitter (@ladwp) and NextDoor.

And apparently there are also other kinds of outages in the area this morning, too — as we saw this rather sizeable crew working on ATT connections underground at Wilshire and Muirfield in Hancock Park.

Finally, which isn’t surprising with all of this – there are many other closures, cancellations and postponements throughout the metro area and beyond. Among those we’ve heard of so far are the closure of most LA County recreation areas and hiking trails, postponement of the Hancock Homes Realty community yard sale, and postponement of the LA Zoo’s Walk for the Wild. So if you were planning on attending anything outdoors today, we recommend checking with the sponsoring organization to see if the event is still on or not. And if not, we’d also recommend sticking as close as possible to home and hearth today, since the storm isn’t quite done with us yet. Things should taper off and be a bit drier tomorrow, though…before another (less severe) storm is forecast for Monday.

Thanks to all the Buzz neighbors and readers who contributed information, tips, and photos for this story – we couldn’t do it without you!

[This story was edited after its initial publication to add the photo of the fallen tree on Rimpau Blvd.]