CITY MANAGER DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR LANCASTER DEBRIS CLEANUP CONTINUES AFTER VIOLENT THUNDERSTORM.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - City officials declared a local state of emergency as residents and business people continued to clear away debris from Tuesday's violent thunderstorm thunderstorm, violent, local atmospheric disturbance accompanied by lightning, thunder, and heavy rain, often by strong gusts of wind, and sometimes by hail. . City Council members scheduled a special meeting for next Wednesday to ratify City Manager Jim Gilley's emergency declaration, which is a necessity if the city and its property owners are to receive state or federal disaster aid. ``We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if we qualify at this point,'' said city spokeswoman Anne Aldrich. Officials hope to know by the council meeting Wednesday whether local damage is enough to qualify the city and its property owners for relief. As of Thursday, officials were still unable to come up with an estimate of the monetary loss. Assistant City Manager Dennis Davenport estimated that about 250 trees were toppled, many of them damaging sidewalks and some hitting cars or homes. City officials know of only two homes where residents were forced out by storm damage. One of those was a house on East Avenue K that was hit by a pine tree about four feet thick and 70 feet tall - it might have been the biggest tree in Lancaster, Davenport said. ``We've got so many trees that missed houses and missed cars and missed people. We have no reports of any injuries,'' Davenport said. The council meeting to ratify the emergency declaration and to adopt resolutions informing the state and federal governments will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at City Hall, 44933 Fern Ave. Gilley, acting in his authority as the city's emergency services emergency services Emergency care '…services …necessary to prevent death or serious impairment of health and, because of the danger to life or health, require the use of the most accessible hospital available and equipped to furnish those services' director, made the declaration of a local emergency Wednesday as it appeared that a second thunderstorm was heading for Lancaster. Wednesday's thunderstorm veered north instead, pummeling Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. . At Edwards, a museum C-47 airplane was left with a three-foot-long gash in its tail after winds pushed it into an F-111 jet. The C-47 - a military version of Douglas Aircraft's pioneer DC-3 airliner - sustained a gash in its left stabilizer stabilizer: see airplane. , Edwards spokesman John Haire said. ``It was a classic thunderstorm - heavy rain, lightning and high winds, in relatively short duration,'' Haire said. The base's operational aircraft were not damaged, Haire said. A lightning bolt Lightning bolt may refer to
tr.v. ex·tin·guished, ex·tin·guish·ing, ex·tin·guish·es 1. To put out (a fire, for example); quench. 2. To put an end to (hopes, for example); destroy. See Synonyms at abolish. 3. the blaze, Haire said. The storm also flooded streets. A third thunderstorm hit Edwards again Thursday afternoon, prompting warnings from weather officials, but base officials said there were no immediate signs of damage. Meanwhile, Lancaster officials announced that Lancaster residential customers of Waste Management can dump tree limbs and other storm debris for free, through Saturday, at the Lancaster Landfill, 600 E. Ave. F. The free dumping is only for storm debris and only for Lancaster residential customers, Aldrich said. On Thursday morning, Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. crews restored power to the High Desert medical clinic, Mira Loma Jail and the Lancaster animal shelter "Dog Pound" redirects here. For the rap group, see Tha Dogg Pound. An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats. . The power blackout had occurred when a short-lived funnel cloud snapped off or otherwise damaged 18 utility poles along Avenue I. Charles F. Bostwick, (661) 267-5742 Chuck.Bostwick(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) A tree-removal crew works on a fallen tree Thursday at 1138 East Avenue K, Lancaster. The towering pine, about 4 feet thick and 70 feet tall, was blown down in the thunderstorm Tuesday. (2 -- color) Lancaster resident Sky Oh inspects a tree Thursday that was downed by a violent thunderstorm two days earlier. The tree fell against his mobile home in El Rancho El Rancho may refer to:
Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion