By Mary O’KEEFE

Residents in the 2300 block of Janet Lee Drive thought an earthquake had rattled their homes Monday morning at about
7 a.m. but soon found it was the wind to blame for the shaking.

Strong winds toppled a tree on Janet Lee sending it crashing through a wooden fence that separated two properties and onto the roof of a nearby house. The Los Angeles County Fire Dept. assessed the house as having structural damage; fortunately, the residents can still stay in the area of the house not affected by the damage.

The tree had fallen across the back rooms of the house with its branches resting on the roof and into the backyard swimming pool.

“I am still alive,” joked the owner of the home.

There were no injuries reported by the residents, just shaken nerves.

It appears the tree toppled due to the extreme winds in the Crescenta Valley area. The winds are blamed for sporadic power outages throughout the area as well.

“There were multiple outages. Since 3 a.m., we have had numerous calls,” said Atineh Haroutunian, Glendale Water and Power spokeswoman on Monday. “It is all wind-related.”

Palm fronds that fall and lie across power lines seem to be the main cause of the outages.

There was one fire due to a fallen tree branch onto power lines, said Haroutunian, in the 1900 block of El Arbolita Drive. The fire was quickly taken care of; however, about 700 customers were affected at the onset of the fire. That number was reduced to 50 customers as power was restored.

At the Glendale City Council meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Yasmin Beers shared the calls that Glendale Water and Power, police, fire and parks and recreation responded to during and after the wind event.

Beers reported that 26 trees of all sizes were downed, 24 calls were responded to for small to large branches littering walkways and streets, Glendale Water and Power responded to calls for service to six different feeder units affecting 5,343 customers; 353 of those customers lost power at three separate times.

“The longest duration for [the outage] was 106 minutes,” Beers said.

Dunsmore Park had one large liquidambar tree fall in addition to large branches that fell from other trees. At New York Park, three trees lost major branches and limbs and two of the liquidambar trees will need to be replaced completely.

Deukmejian Wilderness Park lost one large sycamore tree and the Glendale Sports Complex saw four trees downed, a light pole knocked down in the parking lot and one section of the bleachers blown from the track area to the soccer field.

  Mary Okeefe