High winds strike Southern California

The wind was blowing at nearly 30 mph across much of the South Bay on Thursday afternoon. At LAX, gusts hit 39 knots -- or about 45 mph.

By midafternoon, some 100,000 households around the Los Angeles region were without power, including some in Hawthorne and Westchester. The two major electric companies, Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, had crews working overtime into the night to fix the problems.

"We don't have any reports of any trees that have crashed down over lines," DWP spokeswoman Terry Schneider said. "But a lot of times, debris hits the line or they touch each other."

The high winds drove most people away from the beaches. But lifeguards were approaching those who stayed to warn them about high currents and big waves kicked up by the wind.