Strong winds knock tree branch onto 13 kids at a middle school

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said the ordeal happened this afternoon at Katherine Edwards Middle School. The kids suffered injuries ranging from minor to moderate and were all taken to the hospital. (KCAL/KCBS via CNN Newsource)

WHITTIER, California (KCAL, KCBS) -- The Santa Ana winds created dangerous conditions in Southern California, with a tree branch falling on 13 children in Whittier on Friday.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the ordeal happened this afternoon at Katherine Edwards Middle School. The kids suffered injuries ranging from minor to moderate and were all taken to the hospital.

“All of a sudden, the mailman starts yelling, ‘I need help!” one witness said. “Two more guys jumped over, lifted up the tree and carried the girl away from the trees, and all these other students were scrambling from the tree.”

In other areas, the winds cut off power to several communities as Southern California Edison also cut power to more than 110,000 customers across the region to help prevent wildfires. The outages caused traffic lights to either go out or flash, making it difficult to drive around some areas.

“They had originally said the power would be out from Thursday until Friday night,” Calabasas resident Mike Saunders said. “We just got a notice it will be indefinite, or they don’t know when it is going to come back on. A lot of people are very inconvenienced, people that don’t have generators.”

Without power at home, people are also worried that their food would go bad.

“Right now, I have a cooler and trying to get some ice blocks to get everything from my fridge so all the food doesn’t go bad,” Calabasas resident Max Ortiz said. “We’re talking about US$400, $600 worth of food.”

By Lauren Pozen, Matthew Rodriguez