Updated: Toppled Trees, Power Outages Rampant in LCF

Updated 11:04 a.m.: Hundred-year-old trees have toppled all around La Cañada, with one smashing into a car and blocking a home's entrance on Angeles Crest Highway.

West Coast Arborists and Southern California Edison Workers are dispatched from one end of town to the other, chainsawing hulking tree trunks and replacing power lines.

Updated: 10:05 a.m.: The Glendale Bee Line is running along Foothill Boulevard, although the traffic lights are out east of La Cañada Avenue. Many businesses are closed, such as Dish and Sees Candies, as they have no power.

Also without power is Fairlawn resident Julie Pao who stood Thursday morning, staring at the 80-foot tree splashed across her yard.

"It landed one foot from our car. If it had fallen in any other direction,'' she said, trailing off but pointing to her roof, which remained in tact. Pao's son, Hunter, an eighth grader at La Cañada High School, took full advantage of his day off, as he climbed around on the gargantuan branches.

Tree limbs carpeted many La Cañada streets. A jaunt around the relatively dark town Thursday revealed the smell of freshly cut timber and sounds of chainsaws and sirens.

Updated: 8:17 a.m.: A felled 100-year-old tree is blocking Chevy Chase Drive at Flintridge Avenue--authorities are alerting the city's aborist, who's going to be pretty busy Wednesday.

Earlier: Violent wind gusts knocked out power to , and --all which canceled classes Thursday--as sheriff's deputies and firefighters continued responding to emergency calls around town. 

was also closed Thursday, the day of a planned blood drive for Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

A street sign dangling over Foothill Boulevard and Beulah Avenue needed tending to, and a felled tree on Gould Avenue blocked northbound and southbound traffic.

"Our emergency calls were 10 times the normal amount,'' Battalion Chief Ron Larriva said of Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Most 911 calls were for downed power lines due to wind, he said.

The station brought in extra resources from Los Angeles County, five support engines and one truck, to handle all of the calls, he said, ending the conversation to attend to another emergecy call.

Keep checking back on LCF Patch for updates. If you have any pictures of wind damage, post them here!