LEAD: California cleans up after hurricane-strength winds

Dec 2, 2011, 22:00 GMT

Los Angeles - Repair and utility crews were cleaning up and reconnecting electricity to some 200,000 people Friday after strong winds in southern California caused widespread damage and left hundreds of thousands of people without power.

Gusts of up to 220 kilometres per hour tore up trees, damaged buildings and cut power to at least 340,000 homes and businesses in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, CNN reported late Thursday. By Friday morning some 200,000 customers remained without power.

Strong winds were expected again later Friday but were not predicted to be anywhere near as powerful as the hurricane-force gusts that caused havoc a day earlier.

Los Angeles County declared a state of emergency and Los Angeles International Airport suffered partial power outages, causing many flights to be delayed or cancelled.

In Pasadena, which was one of the heaviest hit areas, inspectors were checking more than 100 buildings to see if they were too dangerous to inhabit. The strength of the winds measured in the mountains outside Los Angeles was equivalent to a category 4 hurricane, the National Weather Service said. Category 5 is the highest on the scale.

The weather phenomenon, known locally as the Santa Ana winds, consists of strong, dry, hot winds blowing from the arid areas of the western United States across California and to sea. Meteorologists said that such strong winds were typically seen only once in a decade.

They are common in the late autumn and winter and frequently cause damage, carry dust and smoke, and fan wildfires.