Orange County: Red Flag Winds Topple Trees, Cause Power Outages

11.24.2021 | 8:00 PM | ORANGE COUNTY – Strong Santa Ana winds toppled countless trees, damaging vehicles, and ultimately causing sporadic power outages across the region.

A Red Flag Warning, along with a High Wind Warning, were issued by the National Weather Service for the southern California region, including Orange County, around 6:00 PM Wednesday evening.

Overnight the winds, which saw gusts of up to 55 MPH, toppled countless trees which often resulted in blocked lanes, downed power lines, and damage to vehicles driven by passing motorists.

One woman was lucky to be uninjured after a tree fell and struck the side of her vehicle as she drove westbound on Edinger Avenue near Jamboree Plaza in Tustin around 8:00 PM.

A second and third incident left numerous lanes blocked in Irvine after both a tree and large branch fell into lanes.

Shortly before 9:30 PM a large tree along Irvine Center Drive, just west of Culver Drive, fell. The downed tree blocked all eastbound lanes and was struck by the driver of an SUV who escaped injury.

Another incident moments later, around 9:40 PM, sent a branch from a large tree tumbling into southbound lanes of Jamboree Road just south of Barranca Parkway.

In all the incidents police had to close lanes of traffic while crews worked to cut-up and dispose of the downed timber.

Many similar incidents were reported across Orange County leading to sporadic power surges and outages.

The powerful Santa Ana winds are expected to last into the evening on November 26.

As of 3:45 AM the Southern California Edison website was reported 12 outages impacting over 1,900 customers across Orange County.

Several cities, including Santa Ana, reported traffic signals out in their respective jurisdictions.

Miles Madison

Miles started reporting breaking news in 2015 and has been providing high-quality news video and timely reports from the Orange County area ever since. Combining his experience as a seasoned photojournalist, radio operator and sleuth, Miles provides unrivaled multimedia news reports.