Southern California wind continues to prove more powerful than the area's power lines. Throughout the weekend storm of wind, rain and, in some areas, snow, nearly 143,000 Edison customers experienced flickering lights or lost power, the Los Angeles Times reports.
As of Monday morning, more than 10,000 customers remained without power. About half of those customers are in Laguna Hills, and 1,326 customers in Santa Monica were without power, the Times reports. Other neighborhoods in the dark included Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Inglewood, Rancho Santa Margarita and Rolling Hills. So Cal Edison crews have been working since Saturday -- when 14,000 customers were in the dark -- to restore power.
The power also went out at two shopping centers and a movie theater complex near Marina del Rey Sunday, CBS reports. Because of a fallen voltage line, movies went black at the Regency theaters in the Villa Marine Shopping Center, and moviegoers relied on emergency lights to find their way out of the theater. Shoppers at the underground Gelson’s Market on Maxella Avenue were escorted out of the dark store and into the dark parking garage by employees with flashlights.
The storm produced wind gusts of up to 73 mph inland, up to one and a half inches of rain, 15-foot swells along the coast and 12-20 inches of snow in the mountains east of Los Angeles, the Associated Press reports.
Unfortunately, another result of the storm was more collisions on the road. California Highway Patrol officials reported 422 crashes in LA County between the hours of 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. Saturday, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports. During the same period one week ago, when there was no rain, 58 accidents were reported.
While the winds took down power lines and wrecked havoc on the roads, they did not stop LA marathon runners from traversing 26.2 miles of wind and temperatures in the mid-40s. Although the sun was out and the rain away Sunday, many runners covered themselves in plastic trash bags and Mylar blankets to guard against hypothermia, Patch reports.