Power was knocked out for thousands of people and a tree fell and crushed a car, trapping a man inside, as a strong wind event blew into Southern California on Tuesday night.
A wind advisory was in effect for much of Ventura and Los Angeles counties – including the Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys – through at least 3 a.m. Wednesday as gusts of up to 55 mph whipped the region, according to the National Weather Service. The strongest winds roared in the Antelope Valley and the 5 Freeway corridor near the Grapevine, the NWS said.
Nearly 3,000 people lost power in Beverly Hills on Tuesday night, and another 390 people in West Hollywood were also left in the dark.
In Beverly Hills, firefighters said wind was a factor when a pine tree fell on a Mercedes-Benz and left a man trapped inside.
Firefighters had to rescue the man from the nearly flattened Mercedes, which was passing near the tree in the area of Benedict Canyon Drive and Lexington Road.
"The majority of the tree is lying on the back of the car, so we consider this driver very lucky," said Dave Grate of the BHFD.
Rescuers said he was conscious and talking when they got him out and loaded him into an ambulance. His condition was not immediately known.
Bevelry Hills firefighters said they were also dealing with downed power lines, stuck elevators due to the power outage and falling tree branches.
A man was run over by his own car after remotely starting the vehicle while it was in gear.
He was standing in front of his Nissan outside of Bowl Thai in the 15000 block of Western Avenue in Gardena at around 11 p.m Tuesday when the accident occurred, a Gardena Police Department spokesman said.
After striking the man, the car ended up driving inside the eatery and smashing into the counter.
The vehicle's owner suffered minor injuries. No one inside the business, which was closing at the time, was hurt.
A Dartmouth College fraternity that had already been suspended is now facing stiffer punishment, after being accused of branding new members.
The Alpha Delta fraternity, which partly inspired the 1978 movie "Animal House," has a history of disciplinary violations including hazing. Now the fraternity is accused of branding members.
"Because of the serious nature of the charges, and the evidence gathered to date, Dartmouth is strengthening and extending the terms of AD's current suspension pending the outcome of the disciplinary process," the college said in a statement.
It's not clear what new members may have been branded with.
Several people were injured when a big rig jack-knifed on the eastbound 10 Freeway in Upland near the Ontario border Wednesday morning, officials said.
The multi-vehicle crash happened just after 7:30 a.m. near the Mountain Avenue exit, according to the California Highway Patrol.
At least 8 cars were involved in the crash and remained scattered around the big rig at 8 a.m.
The HOV, numbers 1, 2 and 3 lanes in the eastbound direction of the freeway were closed where the crash occurred.
Traffic was snarled for miles in the eastbound lanes. Drivers were diverted to the number 4 lane of the freeway as crews worked to remove the vehicles from the scene.
It was unknown how many people were injured and the severity of their injuries.
It was unknown when the lanes would reopen.
A brand-new baby hippopotamus was born at the San Diego Zoo, officials announced Tuesday.
The hippo was born around 6:30 a.m. Monday and is doing well, Jenny Mehlow of San Diego Zoo Global said. Keepers have been observing the newborn and its mother, Funani, and the calf has already nursed several times, Mehlow said.
For now, the calf will be staying very close to its mother since baby hippos typically nurse for about eight months.
Mehlow said this is the fifth calf raised by Funani at the San Diego Zoo. She has birthed 11 calves since 1989. Her mate is Otis, an adult male hippo brought to the San Diego Zoo from the Los Angeles Zoo in 2009 specifically to breed with Funani.
Last March, Funani gave birth to another baby hippo. Sadly, that calf died just days after its birth.
Mehlow said this newborn has had no issues thus far. The zoo's animal care staff is watching both the baby and Funani closely.
The San Diego Zoo says the river hippopotamus is a threatened species. The zoo’s first hippopotamus was born at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago in July 1935 and arrived in San Diego in August 1936, becoming the first hippo to be exhibited by a zoo on the West Coast, according to the zoo website.
In 1940, hippos Rube and Ruby arrived in San Diego from the Calcutta Zoo in India. Together, the pair had 11 offspring, helping the exhibit grow. Ruby and Rube died in 1982 and 1988, respectively.
A truck flipped over the center divider in a multi-car crash that closed the 5 Freeway in Boyle Heights early Wednesday.
A total of six vehicles were involved in the smash, which occurred at Grende Vista, north of the 710 Freeway at around 1:50 a.m, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.
It appears a northbound car hit a tow truck, which then collided with the box truck, which then hit the divider and ended up in the southbound lanes. This caused a secondary accident as vehicles travelling south tried to stop to avoid a collision.
The concrete center divider was damaged in the crash, traffic heading south was diverted off at Calzona Street. The box truck driver was hospitalized with significant injuries following the crash. A woman who was driving a car on the southbound 5 was also taken to the hospital.
Additional crashes occurred in the area, but it is not clear if it was a result of the overturned truck smash.
All northbound and southbound lanes were closed from 2 a.m. until 2:38 a.m. At 3:10 a.m. all northbound lanes reopened, and at 3:38 a.m. two opened southbound.
An early-morning fire in Diamond Bar turned into a death investigation after a woman’s body was found Wednesday.
Officials responded to a structure fire at the 1200 block of Diamond Bar Boulevard shortly after 1 a.m. and initially reported there were no injuries.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s homicide detectives were en route to the location several hours after the blaze to investigate the cause of death surrounding the body found at the scene.
The woman’s daughter-in-law was detained in Tustin in connection with the investigation, officials from the Tustin Police Department said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 323-890-5500.
More than two dozen people are expected to be charged Wednesday as authorities dismantle a Oxycodone and heroin trafficking ring that distributed drugs in public places including a large Rockland County mall, NBC 4 New York has learned.
Twenty-nine people were named in federal and state indictments charging them with conspiracy and drug charges for a narcotics ring that operated out of the Palisades Center Mall in West Nyack, the Mount Ivy Trailer Park in Pomona and various motels around Rockland County between early 2014 and March, law enforcement officials and a federal indictment say.
"Dealers in this operation are alleged to have sunk to a new low, selling prescription drugs and heroin at popular locations where parents drop off their kids to see a movie, attend a birthday party or spend time ice skating with friends," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said at a news conference Wednesday.
The group sold more than 50,000 Oxycodone tablets valued at more than $1 million over the course of the year, most of which were obtained through forged and fraudulent prescriptions, according to the indictment.
One defendant allegedly used his home computer to fill out blank New York State prescriptions with fraudulent patient and doctor information, officials say. Lower-level "runners" would then go to pharmacies across the state to fill the prescriptions.
They also obtained and sold significant quantities of heroin from a distributor in the Bronx, according to officials.
Some of the defendants allegedly celebrated their drug trafficking on social media sites Instagram and Twitter, with one writing on the latter: "Shout out my TMC [Too Much Cash] bros we taking over the streets."
Teams of federal, state and local investigators began making arrests early Wednesday morning.
Seventeen people, including the operation's alleged ringleader, are being charged with federal crimes. The other 12 suspects face state charges.
Neighbors in the Pomona community where some of the drug operations allegedly took place know some of the suspects arrested Wednesday, and were stunned to hear of their arrests.
"It's just a huge surprise to me," said Joanne Brown. "They're just fun-loving guys, always fun to be around. This is just sad."
Investigators with the DEA, NYPD, Westchester County Police and the Town of Orangetown Police conducted the investigation, law enforcement officials say.
The Boston Yeti was the star of Boston’s miserable winter of 2015, helping to lift spirits and gaining international attention as he traipsed around the city as snowstorm after snowstorm buried the city.
Now, he’s using his newfound notoriety to help some fellow furry friends by selling Yeti swag to raise money for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
NECN hosted a Twitter chat with the Boston Yeti on Wednesday. A full transcript of the conversation is included above.
Residents were on high alert after back-to-back burglaries Tuesday night in their quiet-gated Southern California neighborhood.
Ken Cheng said he was only out of the house for about an hour when someone ransacked the master bedroom of his home at 9 p.m. in the 2800 block of Ashberry Court in Fullerton.
The brazen suspect climbed to the second-story balcony of Cheng’s home and entered through an unlocked bedroom door, a spokeswoman for the Fullerton Police Department said.
“They went through everything,” Cheng said.
A neighbor found images on his surveillance camera of a man running through his backyard close to the same time Cheng’s home was burglarized.
Within 15 minutes of the first break-in, police received a report of a burglary in progress at another home on the same block.
Fred Shum said a normal evening for his family turned frightening when his wife discovered a man wearing a ski mask standing inside their master bedroom.
“She started screaming, it’s a scream I never heard before,” he said. “So then I come running from my daughter’s room and he starts to head down the stairs.”
The burglar ran past the family into the living room, taking Shum’s wife’s purse and cash with him. Shum chased after the masked man before he got away.
Tuesday’s attacks were a surprise to Cheng, who has lived in his home for the past five years without incident.
Shum was also shocked by the burglaries, he said his family moved into the community because they thought it was a safe area.
“In retrospect, we feel incredibly blessed and grateful God took care of us and nobody got injured and hurt,” he said.
Officials are asking anyone with information to contact them at 714-738-6821.
Los Angeles weatherman Dr. George Fischbeck has died at age 92, his family told KABC.
Fischbeck delivered the weather for almost two decades in the 1970s and 1980s before retiring from KABC, the station reported Wednesday. He started out as a forecaster with the National Weather Service after working as a schoolteacher and TV forecaster in New Mexico.
Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge in 2013 declared April 10 Dr. George Day in the city, the station reported.
In a May 2013 interview with NBC4 radio partner KPCC, Fischbeck talked about how the industry changed over his more than two decades in Los Angeles television.
"I started in the early days I was a weather forecaster with the National Weather Service," Fischbeck said. "I put in my time down at the weather station three times a day. I had my maps and I'd take my maps, make Xerox copies and I'd put the maps on the air so people could see what I was doing. And now everyone does it."
Fischbeck wrote about his experiences as a teacher and weatherman in the book, "Dr. George: My Life in Weather."
A woman who was reported by her boyfriend to be kidnapped for ransom was found safe Wednesday in Huntington Beach, her family and police told NBC4.
Denise Huskins, 29, was reportedly abducted Monday morning from a Vallejo, California, home, police said.
Huskins' boyfriend claimed an intruder broke into his home early Monday morning and took her by force while demanding a ransom. But her boyfriend waited 11 hours to report it to police, officials said.
On Wednesday morning, the woman went to her mother’s house in Huntington Beach, but her mother wasn't home because she went to Vallejo to look for her daughter, Huskins' aunt said.
She then walked to her father’s home, also in Huntington Beach, but he is also in Vallejo. Huskins called her father from a neighbor's residence.
Relatives and friends hugged and cried outside the apartment building in Huntington Beach, relieved she was OK.
"Excitement, overwhelmed ... I didn't know anything that was going to happen. You hear these stories all the time and you watch TV about them and you never know," cousin Natalia Kane said. "I just was happy to hear that she was alive and safe, and home."
Huskins spoke with officers before they drove her in a car to be reunited with family in a more private place.
Additional details were not available, and it was not clear how she got to Huntington Beach. Vallejo police will be taking over the investigation into what happened.
"I wish I could tell you that it was party time jubilation and all that, but it was just relief more than anything," uncle Jeff Kane said.
Police on Tuesday did not elaborate on what the ransom demand might be. "All I can tell you is that there was a ransom demand," said Lt. Kenny Park of the Vallejo Police Department.
On Tuesday evening, over 100 trained search and rescue personnel, including a dive team, were searching the waterfront near Mare Island, from where Huskins' was reportedly kidnapped.
Huskins is from Huntington Beach, and according to her Facebook page moved to Vallejo in June 2014. She is a physical therapist at Kaiser Permanente.
Hetty Chang, John Cádiz Klemack, and Jodi Hernandez contributed to this report.
An exotic tegu lizard named Zilla was reunited with her owner Wednesday after the lizard was found roaming in a Fontana yard over the weekend.
The lizard's owner, Roberto Robles, was tipped off by a friend that a Jurupa Valley animal shelter was housing his "plump" pet, according to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
Robles immediately called the department to retrieve his beloved reptile.
The supervising Animal Services officer at the Fontana Police Department, Jamie Simmons, went to Robles' house in Bloomington to verify that he was the owner.
Fontana Supe Animal Services Officer Jamie Simmons enjoys reunion of Zilla the Tegu Lizard with owner Roberto Robles. pic.twitter.com/itTItQPb9c
— RivCO animalSERVICES (@helpinRIVcoPETS) March 25, 2015
The lucky lizard and Robles were reunited at the Jurupa Valley shelter Wednesday morning.
"He held (the lizard) like a baby," Riverside County Department of Animal Services spokesman John Welsh said.
"He's happy to have his pet back," he said.
Lucky lizard back in the arms of its owner. Reunion at Riverside Animal Shelter. @helpinRIVcoPETS pic.twitter.com/ar1LR9IqGA
— Fontana PD (@FontanaPD) March 25, 2015
While separated from her owner, Zilla was housed in the shelter's "Critter Corner," Welsh said. The space was built specifically to house exotic pets like Zilla.
She "seemed very docile ... she was used to being held," Welsh said.
It was not immediately clear how the lizard went from Bloomington to a Fontana yard.
The mysterious reported kidnapping for ransom took a new twist Wednesday night when authorities said the woman and her family who had made plans to talk to police had disappeared.
Denise Huskins, 29, was reportedly abducted Monday morning from a Vallejo home, police said. She was reported to be kidnapped by her boyfriend, Aaron Quinn, but was found safe Wednesday morning in Huntington Beach, her family and police told NBC4.
Now, police say, Huskins and Quinn have become the target of the investigation as police probe whether they did anything illegal in their report of a random, violent abduction and a ransom request of $8,500.
Huskins and her family had made plans Wednesday afternoon to speak with authorities but have since disappeared, Vallejo police said.
Police said there was some indication that she would be cooperative and speak with investigators but when the FBI arranged a jet to bring her to Northern California for an interview, she was nowhere to be found.
Huskins has since retained an attorney and detectives do not know where she is, police said.
Since the investigation was launched on Monday, 40 detectives and over 100 personnel have been searching for and investigating Huskins' disappearance, which they said they didn't believe was a random act of violence.
"Today, there is no evidence to support the claims that this was a stranger abduction or an abduction at all," Vallejo police said in a press release. "Given the facts that have been presented thus far, this event appears to be an orchestrated event and not a kidnapping."
Lt. Kenny Park of the Vallejo Police Department told reporters at a press conference Wednesday night that police are looking into possible state and federal charges in the case. Park also said Huskins and her boyfriend sent police on a "wild goose chase."
"The fact that we've wasted all these resources is really upsetting," Park said, adding that "Mr. Quinn and Ms. Huskins owe this community an apology."
At an earlier news conference, Park said his department received a phone call from Huntington Beach police at 10:30 a.m. reporting Huskins had been found safe. Prior to the conference, Mike Huskins said his daughter, Denise, is safe in Huntington Beach. He didn't provide any other details.
Huskins' boyfriend claims an intruder broke into his Mare Island home early Monday morning and took Huskins by force while demanding a ransom. But for some reason, her boyfriend waited 11 hours to report it to police. Park said the alleged ransom for Huskins was $8,500.
How Huskins got to Huntington Beach was not made clear in Wednesday's press conference.
Huskins' uncle, Jeff Kane, said Wednesday morning he was relieved to hear his niece was safe. "Now we know where she is, that’s the most important thing, obviously, but now curiosity is kicking in, and we go, ‘what happened here, why her,’” he said.
“It all seems curious to me," Kane added. "it seems diabolical, it seems criminal, but it also seems orthodox in the crime world.”
Kanes said Huskins' dad had answered a call from an unknown number which turned out to be his daughter. "She said 'Daddy, I am safe, they let me go and I am walking to your house'," Kane said.
Since Huskins' father was in Vallejo at the time, she went to a neighbor's house. Family in Southern California broke into tears when they heard Huskins was back.
"Excitement, overwhelmed ... I didn't know anything that was going to happen. You hear these stories all the time and you watch TV about them and you never know," cousin Natalia Kane said. "I just was happy to hear that she was alive and safe, and home."
Huskins is from Huntington Beach, and according to her Facebook page moved to Vallejo in June 2014. She is a physical therapist at Kaiser Permanente.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco Chronicle was sent an email with an audio file of a woman claiming to be Denise Huskins, who said in a brief call, “I’m kidnapped, otherwise I’m fine.”
In the short clip, she identifies herself, talks about the French Alps plane crash to establish the date and references a personal detail about herself about the first concert she saw. Her voice is calm and the clip lasts less than 10 seconds. It’s unclear who made the clip, or who emailed it to the Chronicle.
Lisa Fernandez and Bay City News contributed to this report
Detectives are cracking down on the illegal "spice" trade in Ventura County.
After conducting a monthslong undercover investigation at more than 30 smoke shops in the area, police found nine shops actively selling the drug. Now, they're working to round up those who are peddling the drug.
The drug is composed of a mix of herbs with man made chemicals, giving it a mind-altering effect. It is often referred to as "synthetic marijuana," but its "effects are sometimes very different from marijuana, and frequently much stronger," according to a statement.
One smoke shop owner, who asked to be identified only as "Ronny" told NBC4 he is officially out of the spice business.
Ronny's Oxnard smoke shop Royal Spades was targeted during one of the countywide undercover stings. He said two of his employees were arrested, but he was not charged with a crime.
After serving search warrants at the 32 smoke shop locations, detectives seized more than 43 pounds of spice and a stolen handgun. In addition, they found evidence of sales of prescription drugs and 10 gambling style slot machines.
Spice is the second-most popular illegal drug used by high school seniors, police said.
The drug is marketed as many things and packaged to appeal to young consumers. For example, some of the packaging labels include phrases like "Scooby Snax, "Frankin Stoned" and "Mr. Happy."
"It's disguised as potpourri or incense, something around those lines," said Captain John Reilly of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "In the package you can get anything — from a severe dose to a minor dose — of whatever the drug is."
The arrests for sales of spice are pending while the substances are tested for illegal chemicals per the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a statement.
Once upon a time, early spring was a great time for snow sports, but as drought moves into year four, skiers and riders are grateful to have anything between them and the slope.
"It's pretty slushy, pretty melty," said snowboarder Nicky Hackman after a run Wednesday at Snow Summit in Big Bear.
"Kind of like wakeboarding out there," chimed in her friend Micah Peasly. "It's still fun," she said of her reward for driving from Los Angeles.
Big Bear's Snow Summit and Bear Valley are the last of the local ski areas still open, thanks to snow-making. But they will also call it a season Sunday.
"If you're a real skier, you'll ski on anything," said Billy Robbins, who drove up from Huntington Beach.
Winter weather during this prolonged drought has been not only drier than usual, but often also warmer.
"We have longer warm spells that we can't even make snow during some of that time," said Chris Riddle, marketing vice-president for the Big Bear Mountain Resorts.
Far more snow usually falls on resorts to the north in the Sierra Nevada, but they are struggling as well, with a dozen in the Lake Tahoe Area already closed. Mammoth Mountain counts 120 inches of snow so far this season, far more than what has fallen on ski areas closer to Los Angeles, but that represents Mammoth's driest winter since 1976.
Still, Mammoth expects to stay open at least through April, said spokeswoman Lauren Burke.
Sierra snowpack is monitored closely at multiple locations by California's Dept. of Water Resources because snowpack melt normally provides about one-third of the state's water needs.
As of the latest readings earlier this month, snowpack on average amounts to only 19 percent of normal, only one percentage point above the lowest ever measurements of 18 percent taken in 1991.
Disappointing snow conditions at resorts can be seen as a bellwether for how much water will be available to fill the reservoirs that feed the California Aqueduct.
"It tells you it's a time of reckoning as you look around and see how little snow there truly is," said skier Brian Reccow as he surveyed the Sugar Bowl ski area west of Tahoe.
Allocations from the state water project are now set at 20 percent.
Next month, it's expected a decision will be made to make a 10 to 20 percent cut in allocations to member agencies of the Metropolitan Water District, which distributes water imported from the Colorado River and the State Project.
"I'm just hoping we have drinking water over here the next few years." said skier Raj Kadevari, who lives in Palm Desert.
Location has also been a factor in the drought's impact on water systems, and on ski areas as well.
Big Bear's resorts have benefitted from access to nearby Big Bear Lake as a source for snowmaking. It was last filled to the top of its dam in 2012, and since then has fallen 11 feet, according to Mike Stephenson, general manager of the Big Bear Municipal Water District.
He expects it could drop another three feet over summer. In recent decades, it dropped as low as 17 feet in 2004.
Big Bear Lake is not tapped for drinking water. For decades it had served as an irrigation source for growers in the Redlands area. But under an agreement dating back two decades, irrigation water can be taken only when the lake is within four feet of full, Stephenson said.
"We've never even come close to our maximum that we can use," Riddle said.
The 2014-15 season actually had begun promisingly, with a series of storms in December. But then it stopped and temperatures rose.
"We normally get a couple of good spring storms," said Kevin Kenney, a manager at Blauersnowboards in Big Bear. "But this year nothing." The shop is preparing for its winter close-out sale before moving on to stocking for spring and summer sports.
As the days grow longer and the last of the snow melts, the focus shifts to mountain biking and lake activities, with hope next winter the drought will relent.
A popular lake in the Inland Empire is at the center of a multimillion dollar water dispute that could leave local residents locked out of the recreation area.
Local residents are outraged by the fight over Canyon Lake, which appears to have nothing to do with the drought.
Many homeowners in the area around the lake have direct access to the water, and they each pay roughly $30 month for that private access.
But now it could be in jeopardy.
"Why everyone else moves to Canyon Lake — the lake," said Christa Paarni, who lives in the community.
Ask just about anyone why they bought a home at Canyon Lake, and the answer will probably be the same.
It’s a private lake for the 13,000 residents to enjoy for boating, fishing and swimming.
But now Paarni, who owns a boat, is worried that her family’s access could eventually be taken away.
"Being completely honest, I immediately started looking at properties outside the lake because I will not live here if I do not have the lake access," Paarni said.
The issue is between the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, which owns the lake, and the Canyon Lake Property Owners Association, or POA.
Earlier this month, the POA decided not to pay a quarterly $344,000 lease payment and instead file a lawsuit against the water district.
"The Canyon Lake Property Owners Association does want to extend the lease but they want to do it at a fair price," said Scott Levine, an attorney for the group.
Levine said both sides have been renegotiating the current lease that is set to expire in 2022.
He said the water district has been charging far too much money for lake access, and won’t budge on a lower price.
He bases that claim on the passage of Proposition 26 in 2009, which prevents agencies from increasing prices beyond the cost of services or what is considered reasonable for those services.
"Essentially what they are charging is an illegal tax," Levine argued.
A water district spokesman disagrees.
"We think it's been fair and equitable to all parties involved for Canyon Lake residents to have exclusive access to the water," Greg Morrison, director of community affairs for Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
The water district board is now deciding if access to the lake should be terminated as the issue now heads to court.
For homeowners, lake access isn’t the only concern.
"It's ridiculous. It's going to kill this community,” resident Derick Spoelstra said.
Neither side is sure when access to the lake could be denied, but the water district plans to discuss it at a meeting Thursday.
"People aren't going to buy a house to look at the lake. They're buying the house on the lake so they can use the lake," said Paarni.