Strong Winds Knock Out Power in Venice, Santa Monica, LAX

Strong Santa Ana winds roared across Los Angeles Wednesday night, knocking out power from Santa Monica to LAX, including parts of Venice, officials said.

More than 25,000 Southern California Edison customers were without eletricty. Northerly gusts whipped as fast as 35 mph in Santa Monica.

At about 7 p.m., the fierce winds were likely the cause of an outage at Receiving Station N near LAX, triggering an hour-long blackout there. The outage affected all passenger terminals, some other facilities throughout the airport and caused three international flights to be diverted to LA/Ontario International Airport.

The receiving station failure also meant large portions of Westchester, Playa del Rey, Del Rey, Venice and the Pacific Palisades were without electricity, said Maychelle Yee, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Most power was restored about 8 p.m., but there still were separate outages remaining in Baldwin Hills, Crenshaw and Encino, she said.

There were no reported injuries, according to Yee.

"We would like to remind people that if you see a power line down, do not touch it and call us," she said.

Electricity was out in Venice at about 7:15 p.m. in areas west of Lincoln Boulevard and south of Rose Avenue stretching into Marina del Rey.

In Santa Monica, a wind-related power outage was reported at 6:30 p.m. near Interstate 10 and Pico Boulevard and power remained out by 8:45 p.m. for about 40 customers.

Police directed traffic on Pico Boulevard near Barrington Avenue due to the loss of street lights. The estimated restoration time was 8 a.m. Thursday, according to information from Southern California Edison's Web site.

The Townhouse bar in Venice went dark and drinks were being served by candlelight until power was restored.

There also were reports of power out in Westwood.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday night issued a high wind warning that will last until noon Friday that warned of wind gusts up to 60 mph.

The warning said that wind gusts will increase Wednesday evening and remain "strong and gusty" through Friday morning, with some weaker winds Thursday afternoon and early evening. The winds will be capable of downing trees and power lines and could cause dangerous driving conditions, the warning said.

Los Angeles County Peak Wind Gusts

• LOS ANGELES INTL AIRPORT ... NORTH 47 MPH.
• SANTA MONICA ... NORTH 36 MPH.
• MALIBU CANYON ... NORTH 47 MPH.
• MALIBU HILLS ... NORTH 49 MPH.
• HAWTHORNE ... NORTHWEST 36 MPH.
• SAUGUS ... NORTHWEST 67 MPH.
• DEL VALLE ... NORTH 52 MPH.
• ACTON ... NORTH 58 MPH.
• WHITAKER PEAK ... NORTHWEST 97 MPH.
• PALMDALE ... WEST 44 MPH.
• LANCASTER .... WEST 38 MPH.