• Voodoo priestess: Curse didn't cause Superdome blackout

    The Super Bowl was delayed in the 3rd quarter for more than 30 minutes due to a power outage at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. MSNBC's Milissa Rehberger reports.

    By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The powers-that-be are blaming an "abnormality" for the half-hour blackout that delayed the Super Bowl. But on Twitter, at least, they have another term for it: The Curse.


    Legend has it that New Orleans' Superdome is vexed by the angry spirits of the poor souls once buried beneath the stadium, their remains uprooted by backhoes during construction in the early 1970s.

    The Superdome became, of course, the site of many losses for the New Orleans Saints and later the misery of thousands of Hurricane Katrina refugees who sheltered there.

    Perhaps it's only natural -- well, supernatural, anyway -- to suggest that the alleged curse was working again Sunday night in a city that loves its superstitions as much as its football.

    Voodoo priestess Miriam Chamani was once enlisted by a radio station to bless the Superdome, using a live python and a pumpkin, before the Saints faced off against the Cleveland Browns in 1999.

    So what does she think zapped the juice in the third quarter as the Baltimore Raves sacked the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick?

    "I think any time you put that much tension on the circuits in a short time, something is bound to happen," Chamani said Monday.

    Mystical tension? Beyond-the-grave type tension?

    "No, just a lot of people using power," she said.

    But Superdome officials said the stadium was actually using less electricity than it does during a typical Saints game. None of its equipment, all upgraded since Katrina in 2005, failed.

    And you can forget the Curse of Beyonce because her half-time show used its own generators.

    The investigation is ongoing. For now, all officials will say is an "abnormality" at the point where power company Entergy's feed intersects with the arena's equipment prompted a circuit breaker to make the Superdome go dark.

    Courtesy Miriam Chamani

    Miriam Chamani, a voodoo priestess, doesn't think the Superdome is cursed -- more than any other place in New Orleans.

    Bob Remy, the statistician for the Saints, who was at the game, agrees the outage was "strange."

    "But it's hard to believe it's a curse," he said, pointing to the Saints' 2009 Super Bowl championships and some winning seasons by the New Orleans Hornets, who play in an arena adjacent to the Superdome.

    The stadium is built over the old Girod Cemetery, where 30,000 people, including many victims of cholera and yellow fever epidemics, were buried.

    The dilapidated graveyard was deconsecrated in 1957 and many of the remains relocated. But when Superdome construction began, many more were dug up, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

    The Saints opened their first season there with a 2-12 record and did not have a winning season until 1987 -- and the idea of a curse was born.

    "I guess if you're a true believer in voodoo you might might take it seriously," said Tulane University professor Lawrence Powell, a local historian. "Most people talk about it tongue-in-cheek. At least in the circles I move in."

    But the Saints themselves bought into the curse enough to hire a voodoo priestess, Ava Kay Jones, to perform rituals before two games in 2000 and 2001. Her record: 1-1.

    Chamani's own ritual resulted in a Browns victory, she said, casting further doubt on the idea of a curse.

    Maybe she isn't the best expert to consult, though. After all, she admits that when the lights went out Sunday, her own lights were already out.

    "I went into a snooze," she said.

    "I guess sometimes life is a curse itself."

    Related:

    Follow the money: Real Super Bowl winners
    Too risque? Beyonce's clothes take heat

    This ad for Bud Light, featuring Stevie Wonder and his hit song "Superstition," aired during the second quarter of Super Bowl XLVII.

     

     

     

     

     

  • No easy fix for eastern US storm power outages as heat wave persists

    Many areas of the U.S. were sweltering on Wednesday, while many Mid-Atlantic residents are still without power and air conditioning after a recent storm. NBC's John Yang reports.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 5:54 p.m. ET: In the aftermath of violent storms that knocked out power to millions from the Midwest to the Mid-Atlantic, sweltering residents and elected officials are demanding to know why it's taking so long to restring power lines and why they're not more resilient in the first place.


    The answer, it turns out, is complicated: Above-ground lines are vulnerable to lashing winds and falling trees, but relocating them underground involves huge costs — as much as $15 million per mile of buried line — and that gets passed onto consumers.

    With memories of other extended outages fresh in the minds of many of the more than 735,000 customers who still lacked electricity Wednesday, some question whether the delivery of power is more precarious than it used to be.

    "It's a system that from an infrastructure point of view is beginning to age, has been aging," said Gregory Reed, a professor of electric power engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. "We haven't expanded and modernized the bulk of the transmission and distribution network."The ongoing outage meant no July 4 holiday for thousands of utility workers who scrambled to restore power across the region. 

    The storms that began Friday knocked out power to 3 million and have been responsible for the deaths of 26 people in seven states and the District of Columbia, including two people who died after accidents in Virginia.

    The sheriff's office in Loudoun County, on the Maryland border, said Wednesday a utility worker from Florida crashed after her truck had brake problems. The bucket truck's driver, 57-year-old Jacqueline Green, died after going downhill into an intersection and hitting a semi-trailer Tuesday. Authorities also said there was a death in Richmond caused by a falling tree but no other details were immediately available.

    The Weather Channel's Kelly Cass takes a look at the national forecast.

    Much of the afflicted areas faced yet another day of scorching heat, with the National Weather Service forecasting temperatures in the 90s and above from the Midwest to the Atlantic Coast.

    Utilities warned that some people could be without power - and unable to run their air conditioners - for the rest of the week. 
    The region still most affected was West Virginia and the neighboring Blue Ridge Mountain section of Virginia, accounting for close to half of the lingering outage. 

    The powerful winds that whipped through several states late Friday, toppling trees onto power lines and knocking out transmission towers and electrical substations, have renewed debate about whether to bury lines. District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray was among officials calling for the change this week and was seeking to meet with the chief executive of Pepco, the city's dominant utility, to discuss what he called a slow and frustrating response.

    "They obviously need to invest more in preparing for getting the power back on," said Maryland state Sen. James Rosapepe, who is among those advocating for moving lines underground. "Every time this happens, they say they're shocked — shocked that it rained or snowed or it was hot — which isn't an acceptable excuse given that we all know about climate change."

    Though the newest communities do bury their power lines, many older ones have found that it's too expensive to replace existing networks.

    To bury power lines, utilities need to take over city streets so they can cut trenches into the asphalt, lay down plastic conduits and then the power lines. Manholes must be created to connect the lines together. The overall cost is between $5 million and $15 million per mile, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, Inc., a nonprofit research and development group funded by electric utilities. Those costs get passed on to residents in the form of higher electric bills, making the idea unpalatable for many communities.

    Power lines are already underground in parts of Washington, but initial estimates are that it would cost as much as $5.8 billion to bury them throughout the entire city and would cost customers an additional $107 per month, said Michael Maxwell, Pepco's vice president of asset management.

    North Carolina considered burying its lines in 2003, after a winter storm knocked out power to 2 million utility customers. The North Carolina Public Staff Utilities Commission eventually concluded it was "prohibitively expensive" and time-consuming. The project would have cost $41 billion and taken 25 years to complete — and it would have raised residential electric bills by 125 percent.

    An onslaught of recent extreme weather around the country, including heat waves, wildfires and flooding, has increased strain on infrastructure already struggling to meet growing consumer demand. And some scientists predict the severe weather will only increase, though it will take time to study this year's weather before any conclusions can be drawn.

    Pepco has contingency plans for dealing with severe weather like tornadoes and hurricanes and runs periodic drills in which staff go through the process of responding to mass outages. In this case, though, the hurricane-force winds lashed the region with no advance notice, creating a type of quick-hit storm that caught the utility flat-footed and for which it had not practiced, Maxwell said.

    Cliff Owen / AP

    A Gulf Power lineman works to restore a power line in Middleburg, Va., on Tuesday.

    "That's going to be a very big lesson for us," he said. "We need to understand how we recover from this."

    A stress index created by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., which monitors the country's power supply to annually assess its performance, shows that day-to-day performance seems to have improved, but there was an increase in high-stress days. The company counted six high-stress days in 2011, slightly more than the three preceding years. Weather was a contributing factor in nine of the 10 failures severe enough to generate a federally required report in 2011.

    But utility insiders acknowledge that the math is little comfort when a customer's air conditioner fails during a triple-digit heat wave and the food spoils.

    "The industry is getting better and better," said Aaron Strickland, who oversees distribution and emergency operations for Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Southern Co. "In my opinion, I think the expectations of customers are higher and higher because we depend so much on electricity. ... We expect to push that button and it works."

    Still, he noted Friday's storms pummeled the region with no advance warning, and "you can't prepare for that.""You don't see it coming," Strickland said. "It just happens."

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

    Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

     

  • Dozens of homes damaged in Georgia tornado

    A twister has touched down in northwest Georgia, damaging up to 100 homes. Msnbc.com's Dara Brown reports.

    By msnbc.com staff

    Dozens of homes were damaged in a tornado near Rome, Ga., Wednesday night, knocking out power and forcing schools to close, local media reported, citing authorities.

    Floyd County Emergency Management Agency director Scotty Hancock said up to 100 homes suffered damage, NBC station 11alive.com reported. The storm uprooted trees and knocked down power lines across the county.

    The National Weather Service confirmed that the storm was an EF1 tornado. Hancock said a NWS team was conducting a damage survey, the station reported.

    Police said a woman in her 70s was believed to have suffered a heart attack when her home was damaged, the Atlanta Constitution Journal reported. The woman's cousins told 11alive.com that as trees began falling around her home, she began having chest pains. She called 911, but the ambulance had trouble getting to her house in the storm. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

    Story: Tornado chasers prepare for high season

    Thousands of northwest Georgia residents were without power early Thursday, but Georgia Power said service would be restored later in the day, 11alive.com said.

    The National Weather Service forecast warns of isolated severe thunderstorms in the region overnight.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

     

  • Many still powerless after LA-area wind storm

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news service reports

    More than 200,000 homes and businesses remained without power for a second day on Friday after powerful winds toppled trees and power lines and left debris across a wide swath of Southern California.

    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:

  • More than 100,000 still without power after winds lash California

    Powerful winds are hammering the West once again, with California bearing the brunt of the damage. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

     

    Updated 6 a.m. ET: Ferocious winds that have brought down trees and power lines across California and western states are forecast to move east and hit Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana on Friday, The Associated Press reported.

    The violent winds eased during Thursday but strong gusts still blew through the region, at times reaching 60 mph in some California mountains that had seen gusts of up to 150mph late on Wednesday.

    The windy weather is expected to eventually diminish, forecasters say.

    In Steamboat Springs, Colo., 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.

    In Nevada, weather officials warned that blowing dust was creating visibility problems on a highway between Reno and Las Vegas.

    The winds were fanning fires in northern California. The Sacramento Bee reported that as of Thursday evening, seven fires had burned more than 130 acres in El Dorado County. Five fires had also burned more than 250 acres in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.

    Even some weather experts were surprised by the wind's force. "It's one of the strongest events that I can remember," said Brian Edwards, a meteorologist with Accuweather. "It's rather rare."

    Updated 5:30 a.m. ET: Approximately 102,000 of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)'s 1.4 million electric customers are without power as high winds continue to cause outages in several neighborhoods, NBC Los Angeles reported. 

    These customers are almost exlusively located in the Los Angeles Metro Area with a few customers remaining in the San Fernando Valley. Power has already been restored to more than 114,000 customers since the wind storm began on Wednesday night.

     

    By msnbc.com staff and news service reports

    The National Weather Service called California's winds a once-in-a-decade event — and it's not over.

    Winds were expected to pick up again Thursday night and race through the mountains, where gusts of 65 mph were expected through Friday evening and 50 mph was forecast for the valleys. 

    The last time that Southern California was battered by such intense winds was in January 2007 when similarly high gusts toppled trees and made a mess. 

    High wind warnings and advisories were also issued for Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico. The blustery weather is also expected to slam Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana.

    Here are the strongest gusts recorded, according to Greg Forbes, a severe weather expert for The Weather Channel:

    • In California, 150 mph winds at Mammoth Mountain
    • In Colorado, 123 mph winds at Steamboat Springs Ski Resort
    • In Utah, 102 mph at Centerville
    • In Nevada, 94 mph southeast of Pahrump in Nye County
    • In New Mexico, 88 mph at Sandia Park in Bernalillo County

    The Associated Press contribued to this report.

    Earlier: Winds cause 'extensive damage' in California

     

     More news and feature stories from msnbc.com:

  • Winds cause 'extensive damage' in California

    Strong gusts caused a blackout at LAX on Tuesday evening and meteorologists say the wind could become stronger on Wednesday. The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore reports.

    By NBC News, msnbc.com staff and news service reports

    Some of the fiercest winds in years blasted the West overnight and Thursday, knocking down trees and power lines in California 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. Pictures of damage -- from uprooted trees blocking streets to toppling houses and buildings -- were shared over and over on social network sites on Wednesday.

    Mayor Michael D. Antonovich declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles County.

    "Did anybody else in LA's block look like Armageddon this morning!?” Regina King posted to her Twitter feed Thursday.

    “Here's how bad it is in our neighborhood: the hardware store is sold out of chainsaws,” Alex Jablonski said in his Twitter post.

    The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings and advisories for parts of California, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico.

    Read an earlier story on worst Santa Ana winds in years

    "What the weather experts are telling us are that these probably are the worst windstorms to hit (the area) in more than a decade," Bob Spencer, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works said, adding that preliminary reports suggest "extensive damage."

    Areas hard hit:

    Southern California
    High winds blew over at least six tractor-trailers before dawn on highways below the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mario Lopez.

    Pasadena closed schools and libraries and declared a local emergency, the first since 2004. Fire officials said 40 people were evacuated from an apartment building after a tree collapsed, smashing part of the roof.

    "We've had several fires, trees into structures, limbs down," Lisa Derderian, Pasandena’s emergency management coordinator told NBC Los Angeles.

    Overnight, a tree collapsed the canopy of a gas station, but an employee shut off the pumps and no fuel spilled. Another tree toppled onto a car, trapping the driver, who was taken to a hospital.

    The San Gabriel Mission also sustained damage when a 70-foot high eucalyptus tree snapped in the mission's cemetery, the Pasadena Star-News reported.

    An estimated 300,000 customers in Southern California were without electricity Thursday. About 26,000 customers were without power in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California.

    In northwestern Los Angeles County, sheriff's deputies rescued two men whose boat capsized in 5-foot swells and gusting winds. They clung to the boat as high winds pushed them to a dam with a 200-foot drop.

    They were treated for mild hypothermia, and one man, a former opera singer, was so appreciative that he serenaded the rescuers with "God Bless America."

    Utah
    High winds ripped through Utah, overturning several tractor-trailers on or near Interstate 15, and 54,000 customers were without power along the state's 120-mile Wasatch Front as high winds took down power lines.

    Police asked schools to close in Centerville, where the weather service reported a 102 mph gust. Mail delivery and trash pickup were canceled.

    Nevada
    The winds had died down by Thursday but some delays were reported at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport because of bad weather there.

    More news and feature stories from msnbc.com:

    NBC News Los Angeles, msnbc.com's Sevil Omer contributed to this report, as did The Associated Press.

  • Worst Santa Ana winds in years to move cross-country

    Strong gusts caused a blackout at LAX on Tuesday evening and meteorologists say the wind could become stronger on Wednesday. The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore reports.

    By The Associated Press and NBC News

    LOS ANGELES - High winds flipped over trees and trucks and knocked out power to more than 300,000 California customers before moving inland early Thursday, where schools in a Utah town closed because of 100 mph wind gusts.

    Some of the worst Santa Ana winds in years blasted through California Wednesday and Thursday, sweeping down through canyons and creating gusts of up to 80 mph through the night, with a 97-mph gust recorded Wednesday night at Whitaker Peak in Los Angeles County. High gusts Thursday morning topped 60 mph.

    The National Weather Service issued high wind warnings and wind advisories for parts of California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming.

    "What's driving this is a large, cold low-pressure system that's currently centered over Needles, Calif. The strong winds are wrapping around it," weather service forecaster Andrew Rorke said.

    The system will sit and spin counter-clockwise over the area for the next day, although "it won't be quite as hellacious" as on Wednesday night, Rorke said.

    The pressure front will then begin moving cross-country, eventually bringing blustery weather to Oklahoma, Missouri and Indiana, he said.

    An estimated 300,000 customers in Southern California were without electricity Thursday morning and about 26,000 more in the Santa Cruz Mountains of Northern California. San Francisco was spared any blackouts but thousands elsewhere in the Bay area were in the dark.

    "We're making a dent in repairs, but we don't know what the winds will bring later this afternoon," Mark Hanson of SoCal Edison said, reported NBCLosAngeles.com.

    In Southern California, high winds blew over at least six semitrailers before dawn on highways below the Cajon Pass in San Bernardino County, said California Highway Patrol Officer Mario Lopez. One trucker was taken to a hospital.

    Twenty-three flights were diverted and several delayed beginning Wednesday at Los Angeles International airport because of severe crosswinds and debris on runways, officials said. An hour-long power outage Wednesday evening affected all passenger terminals. The winds had died down by Thursday morning but some delays were reported in both arriving and departing flights, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

    Northeast of Los Angeles, foothill communities were hard hit as the winds swept down the San Gabriel Mountains.

    Pasadena closed schools and libraries Thursday and declared a local emergency, the first time since 2004. Fire spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said 40 people were evacuated from an apartment building Thursday morning after a tree collapsed, smashing part of the roof.

    "We've had several fires, trees into structures, limbs down," Lisa Derderian, Emergency  Management Coordinator for the city of Pasadena, told NBCLosAngeles.com. About 6,000 people lost power in Pasadena, reported NBC.

    In nearby Glendale, high winds ripped the roof off a restaurant.

    Two house fires, possibly caused by downed power lines, critically burned one person, seriously injured three others and forced seven others to flee, Derderian said. There have been hundreds of reports of wires down, she said. Trees also fell and some roads are impassable.

    Overnight, a tree collapsed the canopy of a gas station, but an employee shut off the pumps and no fuel spilled. Another tree toppled onto a car, trapping the driver, who was taken to a hospital.

    "We probably have over 100 trees that are down and arcing wires and transformers that have blown," police Lt. Jari Faulkner told the Los Angeles Times.

    Across the sprawling suburban San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, hundreds of trees and power lines were down, many blocking streets.

    Along Huntington Drive, a major, six-lane thoroughfare that carries traffic into downtown Los Angeles, nearly every traffic light was dark across a distance of more than 10 miles, snarling traffic during the morning commute.

    In Arcadia, 15 miles east of Los Angeles, power was out and numerous large trees were blocking residential streets. The local school district closed all of its campuses, including the high school, three middle schools and six elementary schools.

    The winds were colder but fiercer than the Santa Ana winds that often hit California in late fall, but they carried the same ability to dry out brush and push fires into conflagrations.

    Los Angeles boosted its fire department staffing because of a red flag warning of high fire danger. Early Thursday morning, crews doused a 2-acre grass fire in a park near Occidental College. Downed power lines sparked the blaze in the midst of 80-mph wind gusts.

    The National Weather Service’s red flag warning is in effect until Friday evening, according to NBCLosAngeles.com.

    Dramatic (and operatic) rescues
    In northwestern Los Angeles County, sheriff's deputies rescued two men trapped on a dam spillway near a 200-drop. The men had gone sailing in a 10-foot boat Wednesday but gusting winds kicked up a 5-foot swell and they capsized. They clung to the boat as high winds pushed them to the dam, according to a Sheriff's Department statement.

    They were rescued and treated for mild hypothermia, and one man, a former opera singer, was so appreciative that he serenaded the rescuers with "God Bless America," according to the statement.

    High winds in Utah overturned several tractor-trailers and knocked out power to more than 30,000 customers. Police asked schools to close in Centerville, Utah, where a 100 mph gust was reported Thursday morning.

    In Wyoming, the prevailing winds usually come from the west but the storm is bringing winds from the northeast. The weather service said the shift in the winds could result in more damage than winds of the same magnitude from the normal direction. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.