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| Mighty winds wallop West Side |
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| Written by Jonathan Partridge | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Friday, 23 May 2008 | |
 Trees toppled and dust filled the air this week as winds reached 40 to 50 mph throughout the valley. Some West Side residents also dealt with power failures when electric lines were damaged. Above, on North Fifth Street in Patterson, Rosaura Araisa awaits the arrival of city public works crews to remove a pair of tree limbs that fell on her van during Wednesday afternoon’s wind storm, causing about $3,000 in damage. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator The National Weather Service recorded wind speeds of up to 44 mph at nearby Modesto City-County Airport and wind speeds as high as 54 mph at Travis Air Force Base near Fairfield. “It’s definitely been a busy day,” said Monica Sandoval, Patterson’s public works management analyst, on Thursday. She said the city had responded to about 50 to 60 calls Thursday regarding wind-related incidents and several on Wednesday as well, as high gusts toppled several large branches to the ground. A few of the streets north of downtown, which were hit hard by the winds, looked like a lumberjack’s haven, with giant tree limbs scattered along the roadside near where branches had fallen. North Fifth Street resident Susana Araisa, whose sister’s van suffered $3,000 worth of damage after limbs fell on top of it Wednesday, said another limb fell in front of her home Thursday morning.  Cleanup crew: Patterson Public Works’ John Rios uses a chain saw to break down one of many tree limbs felled during Wednesday’s wind storm. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator “We just want to get rid of the oldest trees,” she said. Though fallen tree limbs were common, Sandoval noted that no road signs were damaged in Patterson this week as they have been in the past. And though the fire department responded to a downed phone line Wednesday, the city did not report any power line problems. Crows Landing was not so fortunate. A damaged Turlock Irrigation District power line left several residents without power for as long as 6½ hours Thursday. TID initially received a report of a power failure in Crows Landing at 5:45 a.m. that day. Workers restored power to about half of the 350 residents affected by 10:15 a.m. and restored power to remaining customers by 12:15 p.m. TID spokeswoman Jill GeRue said the district responded to several “sporadic outages” throughout its coverage area Wednesday and Thursday as a result of high winds. Because of dry conditions, the air was filled with dust, leading the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District to issue a health cautionary statement through late Thursday. Blowing dust can result in unhealthy concentrations of particulate matter 10 microns and smaller, PM10, valley air district officials explained. Exposure to dust and other particle pollution can cause serious health problems, aggravate lung disease, cause asthma attacks and acute bronchitis, and increase risk of respiratory infections. Though the winds were moving quickly, the storm system that caused it was not, leading to the long periods of windy conditions, explained Jared Leighton, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The eastward-moving winds, which also led to stormy weather in Colorado and the Midwest, were expected to remain calm after Friday afternoon. To reach Jonathan Partridge at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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