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The fierce gusts that tore across Western states Thursday created a path of destruction that closed schools and prompted some communities to declare emergencies.
The storms, described as a once-in-a-decade event, were the result of a dramatic difference in pressure between a strong, high-pressure system and a cold, low-pressure system, meteorologists said. This funnels strong winds down mountain canyons and slopes.
The system brought high wind warnings and advisories for California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. The blustery weather was expected to next hit Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana.
'Off and on'
The violent winds eased but strong gusts still blew through the region Thursday night, at times reaching 60 mph in some California mountains.
Powerful winds are hammering the West once again, with California bearing the brunt of the damage. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
Forecasters said the winds would continue Friday, but diminish as the day wore on.
"It looks like we're going to have winds, off and on, through the weekend," said NBC4 forecaster Byron Miranda from Los Angeles.
Read complete coverage from NBC Los Angeles
The winds were also fanning fires in northern California.
The Sacramento Bee reported that more than a dozen fires burned more than 130 acres in El Dorado County. Five fires had also destroyed more than 250 acres in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.
In Southern California, the storm knocked out electricity to more than 350,000 utility customers. By early Friday, 240,000 of them were still without power.
Gusts, which reached 80 mph, were blamed for toppling semitrailers and causing trees to fall on homes, apartment complexes and cars.
Gene Blevins / Reuters
Local residents look at eucalyptus trees which fell on cars and blocked the street on Avenue 57 after a heavy wind storm in Los Angeles.
A state of emergency was declared in Los Angeles County, where schools in a dozen communities were closed.
In some neighborhoods, concrete light poles cracked in half. Darkened traffic signals and fallen palm tree fronds and branches snarled traffic. At a Shell station, the roof collapsed into a heap of twisted metal.
Heaviest hit area
In heavily damaged Pasadena, schools and libraries closed and a local emergency, the first since 2004, was declared. Officials said 40 people were evacuated from an apartment building after a tree smashed part of the roof.
Pasadena is known for its historic homes and wide oak-lined streets that are frequently depicted in films.
"We still have large trees blocking streets and getting them removed is a priority today," said Lisa Derderian, emergency management coordinator for Pasadena.
About 200 buildings were damaged there. More than 40 buildings were red tagged, meaning they are not inhabitable.
"It will take weeks to get this stuff clear," contractor Tony Martinez told NBC Los Angeles. "We've got some crews, the city has some crews, so if we keep this up we're talking about a month or so."
Many residents Thursday blamed the city for protecting its old trees from over-trimming to such an extent that they have now become a public safety hazard.
Vince Mehrabian, the general manager at A&B Motor Cars, estimated eight Lexus, Cadillac and other luxury cars had been destroyed by fallen limbs. He said he'd been asking the city for four years to trim the trees more.
On a street around the corner, almost every tree was either cracked in half or missing limbs.
Elsewhere, San Diego’s Anna Cearley posted on her Twitter feed how she was kept awake by the wind.
“Thought we were done with #winds in #SanJose but tonight is worse yet. Whistling so loud, can't sleep,” she said on Friday.
Similar stories of downed trees and power lines echoed across the West. Areas hit hard:
Utah
On Interstate 15, strong gusts blew more than 10 semi-trucks onto their sides, prompting authorities to temporarily close the highway to trucks. Commuter train travel was also interrupted after debris covered the tracks.
Schools closed in Centerville, where a 102-mph gust was reported. Mail delivery and trash pickup were canceled.
Davis County issued a disaster declaration to request state assistance, citing more than $3.5 million in estimated damage to infrastructure.
The Red Cross opened three centers to provide food and aid to people affected by the storm, and opened one overnight shelter in Ogden.
Nevada
Weather officials warned that blowing dust was creating visibility problems on a highway between Reno and Las Vegas.
Colorado
In Steamboat Springs, the roof of a four-story condominium complex was blown off and about 100 trees were knocked over, some landing on homes. A ski area shut down its lifts after a gust of 123 mph.
Even some weather experts were surprised by the wind's force.
Jonathan Lloyd from NBC News Los Angeles, msnbc.com's Sevil Omer and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More news and feature stories from msnbc.com:
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LA is the abbreviation for Louisiana, L.A. is the abbreviation for Los Angelas. Proofreading wins.
How about Hell A vs LA
Exactly where was LA used in this article?
Wasn't...
perhaps you should proofread your own comments before posting ("Los Angelas").
Remember the know it all in your classroom? The person that had part of the teachers but on there nose. Always showing off, pointing our others faults and errors. Jeremy from Michigan was one I am sure.
Maybe it will blow some of the illegals back across the border where they belong...:p
Maybe it'll blow you to hell ;)
i need to stop planning trips to LA... last time was irene stopping me here on the East Coast and this time its wind storms...
maybe california needs to look for higher ground. trim your trees an cut off all your power we have to send you too
EMERGENCY!! EMERGENCY!!
my patio umbrella fell over.
Oh no! Once we had one of our cushions on the patio lounges blow down the hill and we had to walk down and bring it back. It was winter, and we were just sitting out there the day before enjoying the sun. Shocking
I want to ask all the liberal greenies in California what they think of wind power now?
That's it's powerful. (You writing set up lines on purpose?)
I love LA (the city of Los Angeles) I love green energy and our immigrants and I don't care if they are legal or not. The truth is, they all should be legal based on the treaty when we took CA away from Mexico, after we took it away from the Indians. And earthquakes? They can happen anywhere as y'all know. Catastrophes can be man made and nature made. CA is the best place in the world to live. I moved here from Texas and would never go back........although Dallas and Austin are nice. Can you imagine driving through Texas with tents on the side of road and weird people selling guns, swords, and ammunition? Scary. Not for me. I know there are bad guys everywhere, but all considered; CA has more to offer when you look for quality of life. But I like New York City, Chicago, Nashville, Seattle, Boulder, New Orleans, and DC, to mention a few places in the US.
Super. Just remember that if your County comes groveling for Federal assistance. You don't need any, you have 50+ million to spend on Illegals ( by the Cities accounting last year ) you can work this out on your own. I've lived in So Cal, Tx, Illinois, Michigan and Florida. I have to say Ca. rated right down there with TX. for being the armpit of the Nation. Too many non English, illegal types for my taste. I don't live living in fear because my skin is not brown and I am a Legal Citizen.
No problem,when the San Andreas fault goes off,California will drift out to sea and these winds will be a thing of the past.
Ya we'll fall off the edge of the world.
There are many myths and legends about the San Andreas Fault, the biggest being that it will one day crack and California will slide into the sea. WRONG! It won’t happen and it can’t happen. Nor is there any thing such as “earthquake weather” or preferred times of day when earthquakes hit. Quote from........sanandreasfault.com
Check it out
I love California. I wish I could live there in and/or around Los Angeles.
try San Diego.... LA sucks.
San Diego it is.
If man won't trim trees, nature will. Saw the same thing in central Illinois after a major ice storm took down many of the "historic" trees.
Back in the sixties we had hurricane force winds in Big Bear that knocked down big sugar pines like match sticks and crushed houses and cars and killed one women in her car in her driveway and then hit the house with big trees later. The tops of the big pine trees were breaking off and flying several hundred feet before they came down. Several trees knocked out the ski lifts at Moonridge as the fell across the cable and took it to the ground. It took several days to clean up the mess as it was dangerouse to work around any trees.
I don't care about the rambling. Feel for the people!
The liberals in CA will want to legislate away high winds then spend a billion researching how to do it
Not really, but keep thinking that way. We have enough people in CA already.
"The storms, described as a once-in-a-decade event..." Not any more.
For any of these Sanctuary Cities lining themselves up for FEMA assistance. The answer is no!! LA spent over 50 million LAST year providing services to Illegals. They will find a way to handle this.
It is interesting that a lot of comments after articles will try to fit in one or more talking points usually something negative about "liberals", Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, "illegals" or Global climate change. No matter what the topic there always at least one of those points.