CLEANUP TIME RESIDENTS DIG OUT, CHOP DOWN, MOP UP.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick and Greg Botonis Staff Writers

LANCASTER - Homeowners, business people, utility crews and city workers on Wednesday were chopping up toppled trees, repairing damaged roofs and restoring downed power lines left by a violent summer thunderstorm.

More than 500 homes and businesses - including Los Angeles County's High Desert medical clinic - remained without power Wednesday afternoon from Tuesday's storms that brought hail, torrential rain and winds strong enough to snap foot-diameter pine trees.

``I was born and raised around here and have never seen anything like this,'' said Bob Yates, 67, of Lancaster as he surveyed damaged trees at his son's house on Lancaster Boulevard.

Spawned from a moist, unstable air mass that was heated by the desert sun, the storms spared most of the valley but hit Lake Los Angeles with penny-size hail and pounded Lancaster. Palmdale and Rosamond had light rain but little wind.

And while Lancaster was still cleaning up from Tuesday's storm, a new one arrived Wednesday afternoon and the Weather Service warned that more thunderstorms are possible today.

By late afternoon Wednesday, the second storm had knocked out power to more than 1,000 homes and businesses in Rosamond and Lancaster and contributed to at least a half-dozen crashes on the Antelope Valley Freeway between Santa Clarita and Mojave. Lightning strikes were reported on power poles beside the freeway south of Agua Dulce.

Los Angeles County fire officials put together a ``strike team'' and eight camp crews to contend with any problems from the second storm.

Tuesday evening's storm knocked out power at the worst to more than 38,000 homes and businesses. More than 70 Southern California Edison workers, including some brought in from other areas, were working Wednesday to restore power to areas still blacked out.

The electrical-system damage included 18 poles snapped or seriously damaged along Avenue I near 60th Street West, where a Lancaster man who had been driving on Avenue I said he saw a funnel cloud snap the poles one after the other.

Before the funnel cloud reached his pickup truck, the man said, it retracted back into the black cloud overhead.

``I saw the telephone poles popping from east to west. Before (the funnel cloud) got to the intersection it just disappeared,'' said the man, who asked not to be named. ``It looked exactly like the ... movie 'Twister.'''

Electricity in that area is not expected to be restored until noon or 2 p.m. today, Edison spokeswoman Alis Clausen said. High Desert Health Systems Clinics was closed until further notice because of the outage, while nearby Mira Loma Jail, Challenger Memorial Youth Center and the Lancaster animal shelter were using emergency generators, she said.

With winds estimated at up to 65 mph, trees were uprooted or snapped throughout Lancaster, some toppling onto parked cars and others falling onto roofs. Winds knocked down fences, a billboard and even a brick wall. No serious injuries were reported.

Rain and hail fell so heavily during the storm that people said it was hard to see through it.

``I couldn't see the sidewalk from my office, which is about 30 feet away,'' said Steve Standerfer, spokesman for Antelope Valley College, where the storm knocked over trees and sent water into the gymnasium, damaging the floor and sparking a small fire.

The billboard fell on top of a custom Dodge Ram pickup owned by Rafi Mardiros, the owner of the Oil Rite Express auto shop on Sierra Highway.

``It was so loud, the thunder and the hail, that we didn't even hear the sign fall,'' Mardiros said Wednesday.

When the storm hit, Mardiros had ordered his crew to close the bay doors, which was a struggle because of the high wind.

When the storm eased up, a worker spotted the fallen sign in front of their shop. The wind had bent the sign's steel supports, which are cemented into the ground.

Worried that the shop walls might buckle as well, Mardiros and his employees fled the building until the storm passed.

``I wasn't sure if the walls would be next so we got out of here. I have never seen anything like that,'' Mardiros said.

Lancaster city officials were working Wednesday to compile an estimate of the damage. The initial survey didn't show damage enough to qualify for federal disaster aid, they said.

Fire crews and city maintenance workers on Wednesday were cutting up trees that blocked streets, working their way down one street and then up another.

City Hall received approximately 300 calls about weather-related damage, spokeswoman Anne Aldrich said.

``We are suggesting people check trees that are still standing for damage,'' Aldrich said.

Palmdale public works crews were helping out in Lancaster, along with seven crews from tree trimming companies. City officials thanked sheriff's volunteers for their assistance, including helping with traffic control, she said.

Three traffic signals were still out as of Wednesday afternoon: Avenue L and Fourth Street East; Avenue J and 20th Street East; and 50th Street West and Avenue I.

At Antelope Valley College, the gymnasium was damaged by rainwater that poured down the west wall, damaging the floor. Water that leaked into a fire alarm panel was blamed for a fire that broke out around noon Wednesday, but was confined to a utility closet.

Campus police Chief Tom Bryant and Lt. John Carey discovered the fire when they smelled smoke while surveying the storm damage.

They told about 30 students and staff to evacuate, radioed for the fire department and grabbed fire extinguishers to fight the flames before firefighters arrived.

``Had we gotten there two minutes later the whole room would have been engulfed in flames,'' Carey said.

At El Rancho mobile home park in east Lancaster, the storm knocked over trees, damaged awnings and sheds and tore evaporative coolers off rooftops.

``I saw a massive dark cloud, like a stream,'' said resident Sky Oh, whose flagpole was bent by a falling tree and whose tool shed was crushed.

Staff writer Jim Skeen contributed to this story.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

6 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color in AV edition only -- ran in AV and SAC edition only) Antelope Valley College groundskeeper Kenneth Mercado examines a mulberry tree felled by high winds on Tuesday.

(2 -- color in AV edition only -- ran in AV and SAC edition only) Power poles along Avenue I near 50th Street West were snapped like toothpicks during Tuesday's storm.

(3 -- ran in AV edition only) Kenneth Mercado, a groundskeeper at Antelope Valley College, examines a mulberry tree blown over by fierce winds on Tuesday.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

(4 -- ran in AV and Valley edition only) Heavy winds from a summer thunderstorm blew over a row of trees outside an apartment complex on Avenue J-8.

(5 -- 6 -- ran in AV edition only) The winds from Tuesday's storm were so severe they bent a billboard over double, above, and toppled trees, left.

Paul Weatherman/Special to the Daily News