So last night was a nightmare.  I had complete flashbacks to my ordeal with Hurricane Charley back in 2004.  The main difference was that a Hurricane is steady and constant.  Last night, you would get a gust of winds ripping through your yard and then it would stop for a few minutes and then the gusts would attack once again.

It was insanity, last night and this morning.  In the daylight, you could see the carnage everywhere.  The barbeque was on the other side of the yard.  There were leaves, tree branches and oranges every where.  And the winds were still whipping around.  The power was out everywhere in Altadena and the majority of Pasadena.  I had a tree in down in my driveway that I had to pull to the side so I could leave for work.  All the traffic lights were out on the way to work and it appears that no one knows what to do.  They don’t understand that you are supposed to treat it like a four-way stop.  And there were no cops around to direct traffic.  I guess being from the Midwest, I expect better response to a storm with high winds.

On Good Morning America, they said that the winds reached 100 miles per hour at LAX just before they blacked out.  I lost power a little after 10pm and it was still out this morning.  I learned the hard way that I should have listened to the news.  When the power went out, I had to use the glow from the screen on my cell phone until I found the box with the candles and flashlights.

I curled up in bed with both cats.  It was a very long sleepless night.  I kept hoping I would get a call saying the schools were closed.  All Pasadena schools were closed.  But there was power in Glendale.  Now we gather around in the hallways, the teachers, talking about how the winds were around our homes.  One teacher had her roof ripped off.  Another had a tree crash into her garage and smash her car.  And another had the glass from her windows sucked out into the yard as if she were trapped in the eye of a tornado.

This is not typical behavior for the Santa Anas, at least not since I have lived in Los Angeles.  And it is supposed to be worse tonight.

The LA Times mentioned that 300,000 people are without power.  I am one of those people.  And with the winds set to pick up again this afternoon, according to the LA TIMES, will they get everything fixed in time or is it going to be another scary night in the dark?

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