Santa Ana winds topple big rig, threaten trees in rain-soaked ground
Moderate Santa Ana winds on Tuesday toppled a big rig, triggered highway warnings and threatened rain-soaked trees across Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.
An hour after Caltrans issued a high-wind warning for the 15 Freeway near Fontana, a big rig overturned at 7:30 a.m., blocking three lanes for more than an hour and prompting alerts of further risk to oversized vehicles.
“Obviously, Southern California is a main thoroughfare for big rigs, and both passenger cars and big rigs need to be extra-vigilant,” said CHP Officer Steve Carapia.
Gusts of 40 to 50 mph swept the Malibu Hills and the Angeles National Forest off the 5 Freeway near Castaic Lake in the early morning hours, the National Weather Service said. Coastal and valley areas saw winds of 30 to 45 mph.
Gusty winds were also forecast to make driving difficult on Highways 23 and 126 in Ventura County, according to the wind advisory.
In addition to posing a danger to high-profile vehicles like tractor trailers, wind gusts also threatened to topple trees after recent rains left the ground saturated with moisture, according to the weather service.
In Granada Hills, Los Angeles firefighters responded after a large eucalyptus tree crashed through power lines and landed on the roof of a home in the 17600 block of Kingsbury Street. Nobody suffered injuries as a result of the tree fall, officials said.
The fire department said it had not yet determined specifically what toppled the tree, but noted that there were strong winds in the area.
Caltrans’ wind advisory also covered the Cajon Pass near Rancho Cucamonga, the Santa Clarita area and San Diego County from Alpine to the Imperial County line. Travel for campers and trailers in the affected areas was discouraged.
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UPDATES:
12:15 p.m.: This article was updated with details of a toppled tree in Granada Hills.
This article was originally published at 10:55 a.m.
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