Cleanup efforts continued in Altadena on Monday, days after powerful Santa Ana winds toppled a massive tree over the weekend and sent a portion of it crashing into a home.
Crews have been working since early Saturday morning, cutting down limbs to remove the approximately 100-foot-tall pine from a home on Braeburn Road.
The giant tree, estimated to be about 85 to 100 years old, was on the property of Vance Weisbruch. It was uprooted by tenacious gusts that reached up to 80 mph Friday night and smashed through the two-story home of Weisbruch’s neighbor, leaving a gaping hole in the house’s roof.
Weisbruch said he was getting ready for bed when the tree came down, a discovery first made by his wife, who heard it.
“At 11:47, the electricity went off, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh wow, the whole block … the electricity went out,” he told KTLA. Then, “the wife said, ‘Did you hear that?’ I went, ‘Hear what?’ And so then she said, ‘Well, I’m going to go look outside.'”
She then told him the 100-foot pine had fallen, which left him stunned.
“I went outside, and it was just like the Twilight Zone,” Weisbruch recalled. “My main concern was our neighbor Harrison next door. … I called him and then he was sleeping on the other side of the house. And he came out and he was like, ‘Hey, everything’s OK.'”
Weisbruch’s own residence also sustained some damage.
“Our house — it tore up our gate and … got a little bit of the corner of the house,” he said.
While the tree caused extensive damage, no injuries were reported.
The strong wind event wreaked havoc across the Southland Friday into Saturday, felling trees throughout the region. Thousands of customers were without power for hours as downed live wires kept crews working around the clock.
Gusty Santa Ana winds are expected to return to the area Tuesday night into Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service.