California Destroyed By Blustery Day
Back when California used to have the nation's top public schools (instead of the worst) and biggest state park system (instead of locked-gate meth-lab forests) along with lots of good-paying jobs and an entire population of fit, beautiful, tattoo-free people who spent all their time at the uncrowded beaches talking about philosophy or whatever, the "trade off" was that Californiaalsohad terrible natural disasters. It was the kind of thing that kept a certain demographic (really scared Indiana people, say) from moving out West. "Sounds great," they'd say, "but I heard there was an earthquake about 10 years ago that killed twenty people, so I'm staying put, where I'll probably freeze to death in the outhouse tomorrow and never be found.") Anyway, now the disasters have moved elsewhere. Oklahoma and Virginia get all the earthquakes now, the wildfires went to Texas, New York City attracts all the hurricanes (and asshole mayors), and Californians are reduced to crying about a windy day.
It was quite breezy last night:
Some of the worst winds in years blasted the West overnight, knocking down trees and power lines in California and toppling trucks and forcing some schools to close as gusts reached 102 mph in Utah. The winds left hundreds of thousands of people without power, mainly in California, darkening streets and traffic lights as commuters made their way into work.
“It was a terrifying ride for me, coming here in pitch dark ... and watching motorists take no notice of lights being out,” said Bob Spencer, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
Maybe they still managed to turn on their cars' headlights, Bob! Also, "Utah" is not in California. Yet. But what about the wildfires maybe escaping from Texas and coming back west?
The high winds, combined with low humidity in the mountain regions, will create conditions conductive to fire, the weather service advised.
“If a fire were to get going, there’s very little that would hold it back,” meteorologist Carol Smith.
At least it's cool and cloudy, Carol! (With a chance of showers tomorrow.)
After a brief power outage at Los Angeles International Airport, impatient travelers were put on buses and sent out to the secondary airports at the edge of the megalopolis. But by the time one busload of passengers had been driven the hundred miles to Ontario airport, the crisis was over and the bus turned around (in rush hour traffic) to return to LAX. But by then, their plane had flown to Ontario, and ... oh for god's sake.
Meanwhile, some 300,000 households in "the Southland" are without power, because the utility companies still haven't figured out that intense Santa Ana winds blast into the Los Angeles basinevery single year without fail.
On Twitter, meanwhile, everybody is whining about how their cars got crushed by fallen trees. Think of thetrees, you selfish jerks.