No emergency outages after Santa Ana winds prompted Southern California fire danger warnings The winds in Orange County peaked at 78 mph early Tuesday morning.
As the remnants of Hurricane Florence bore down on the East Coast, officials and emergency managers warned that the potential for widespread power outages in Southern California could be high.
In Orange County, about a dozen emergency warnings were issued Tuesday morning for the county’s six largest cities, including four due to hurricane-force winds and two for rip currents.
In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Fire Department warned residents that even low-end winds could cause power to go out. The department said power may go out in a few areas of the city as the winds reach 74 mph and above.
In Pasadena, a Red Cross shelter told hundreds of residents Monday that if the winds pick up to around 70 mph, power could go out for about a day.
“It’s going to be bad,” Red Cross shelter worker Lisa Leffler said. “If we have power outages anywhere in the county, they’re going to be very significant.”
Many of the areas with power outages, however, were in areas where the winds were stronger.
In the northern half of the county, the bulk wind warning for wind is at 52 mph or below, according to the weather service.
As of the evening commute, some of that area was under a high wind warning, which was due to winds reaching as high as 62 mph.
By 6:30 p.m., Orange County Public Safety spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said that the highest wind gust reported Tuesday morning was 65 mph at the San Juan del Sur airport, which is located 1.4 miles north of Anaheim, and that the winds would be dropping off by the time the storm left the area Tuesday night.
The weather service said Tuesday night that winds at San Juan del Sur were expected to slow to between 49 mph before picking up again from Wednesday night through Friday morning.
The Orange County Fire Authority had no new information on how long the power outages could last.
In a news conference late Tuesday, fire officials said it is likely that the wind would pass
