Itchy, Icky Santa Anas Blast Away

These are the days, as writer Raymond Chandler noted, when “anything can happen,” the days when the prickly winds howl down across the San Fernando Valley, leaving clear skies and messy yards and wreaking havoc with everything from hairstyles to power lines.

As a late but powerful set of Santa Anas weakened after a three-day blow, residents across northern Los Angeles County spent Tuesday digging out from under palm fronds and patching roofs as municipal crews fanned out to clear roads and untangle fallen trees from power lines.

“We’re very busy,” said Al Lee Jr., Glendale’s street superintendent. It was an understatement. City crews were called off their normal jobs of asphalt and sidewalk repairs to clean up the dozens of city trees uprooted by holiday winds that at times hit 50 mph.

Glendale was perhaps the hardest hit by the winds, which forecasters said should ease today and subside slowly over the rest of the week. Patio chairs ended up in swimming pools. Felled trees blocked driveways. And Sunday and Monday, some 12,000 Glendale households were without power after fallen trees knocked down lines and damaged circuits.

Power was restored to most customers by Monday, but a few remained in darkness until Tuesday, said Bill Hall, Glendale’s electrical services administrator. “Normally, the high winds bring the power lines down, but this was just so large-scale.”

Indeed, the recent winds were more powerful than usual, although nowhere near record-setting, said National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Bruno. “I know it’s been really tough this week,” Bruno said, almost sympathetically. “But it looks like we’re headed into a pretty quiet weather pattern.”

Tuesday morning, winds in Van Nuys were clocked at 30 mph and below some East Valley passes gusts hit 40 mph, Bruno said. Although late in the season, the winds are not unusual and were fueled in part by a mass of downward moving air over California.

But as that mass of air dissipates, Bruno said, “it will hardly even be breezy.” A marine layer might start to form by late week and the weekend is forecast to be both cooler and more moist--welcome news to sinus sufferers and those with sensitive skin.

Sherman Oaks dermatologist Edward Petko said the dry wind acts as a sponge that sucks the moisture right out of skin. “It sucks water out of rosebushes and if there are no rosebushes to be had, it will take it right out of you,” Petko said.

He said the best way to keep the skin moist during windy periods is to dampen it with warm water and then seal the moisture in with a light coat of white petroleum jelly. “There are some pharmaceutical companies that don’t want you to know that.”

For sinus sufferers, Granada Hills ear, nose and throat specialist Hershell Kaufman said it’s not as bad as it could be. “It’s not the wind that’s the problem,” he said, explaining that it’s what the wind carries that causes problems.

“The trees have not started blooming yet,” he said. “In another few months. . .”

By then, though, the Santa Anas will have calmed for another season. Some suspect the winds were named after the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, whose cavalry stirred up clouds of dust. Others believe they were named for the Spanish word for Satan.

In any case, cleanup crews were having a devilish time sweeping up the mess. In Los Angeles, where about 10,000 Department of Water and Power customers were without power for part of Sunday and Monday, all lines had been repaired, spokeswoman Lucia Alvelais said.

In parts of Los Angeles County, crews expected to be working throughout the week to cut up trees and clear debris out of neighborhoods from La Canada to Sunland, spokeswoman Donna Guyovich said. “It’s pretty much under control,” she said.

Back in Glendale, though, the work may take longer. Wells said it can take as many as four trucks to haul away debris from a single block in hard-hit neighborhoods along the city’s northern edge.

“It was quite a wind,” Wells said.