KNBC-TV
A downed tree litters the yard of a home in Altadena, Calif.
By msnbc.com staff and NBC News
Los Angeles County officials are asking the state and federal governments to declare the region a disaster area after last week's devastating wind storms left tens of thousands of customers without power and caused millions of dollars of damage.
Tabulations of how much disaster reimbursement the county will seek weren't complete Tuesday morning, and with high-wind advisories continuing into the late afternoon, it's hard to put a number on the total damage.
Just in Monrovia, east of?Pasadena, "overall damage could be as much as $4 million," Mayor Mary Ann Lutz told NBC station KNBC of Los Angeles.
Six days after powerful winds blew the region, nearly 15,000 customers were still without power late Tuesday morning, Southern California Edison said.
Map of current power failures in the Los Angeles area
The winds caused severe damage to the power grid, lines, poles and equipment, it said. Further damage is possible Tuesday as winds above 35 mph are forecast into the late afternoon.
A high-wind advisory was in effect until 3 p.m. PT for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, the National Weather Service said, and until 4 p.m. south to the Mexican border. It said the winds could cause even more broken tree limbs and downed power lines.
Combined with clear, dry conditions, the potential for major fires is especially acute. An area from north of Santa Barbara to south of San Clemente remained under a red-flag warning, signaling an extreme fire danger.
Nearly a week into the ordeal, Southern Californians' nerves were at the breaking point.
With no electricity to run their refrigerators, many are using food as fast as they can, watching some of it go soft and mushy. And many are just bored without their computers and TVs.
"We're going to bed, like, at 6:30 at night because there's nothing to do," Vickie Lee of Montrose told KNBC. "You can't hardly keep your eyes open, it's so pitch dark."
NBC station KNBC of Los Angeles contributed to this report by msnbc.com's Alex Johnson.
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