On the night of Wednesday, November 30 and the early morning
hours of Thursday, December 1, 2011 strong winds rocked Los Angeles County
hitting particularly hard in the western San Gabriel Valley communities of
Pasadena, South Pasadena, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, and Monrovia.
Wind gusts stronger than 140 mph which would be equivalent
to a Category 4 hurricane were measured on ridge tops and 80 mph winds in the
valley areas were common. Before it was
over more than 400,000 people were without power, flights in and out of local
airports were delayed and thousands of trees were toppled along with damage to
many roofs, signs, fences and other infrastructure.
Here at the Arroyo Vista Inn we were lucky. A patch of shingles blew off the roof,
windows in our house next to the Inn flew open in the night, trash cans were
tossed about and the screens on our air conditioning units bounced around the
yard. Miraculously, not one of our 100
oak trees was toppled although many branches were broken or had to be trimmed
back. Russ and I were up a couple of
times in the night checking on things to make sure everyone was alright.
Our nighttime view of the lights of Pasadena and Altadena, nestled
against the San Gabriel Mountains, was altered significantly as over 500 power lines
were downed and lights all over town went out.
Fortunately, for us our power was only out for eight hours and came back
on in time to serve our guests their normal breakfast. In fact the Inn was so snug during the wind
storm that one guest said she slept through the entire event.
Many of our neighbors were not so lucky with some in South
Pasadena being off the power grid for four days and others in surrounding
communities for almost a week. As the
days wore on we took in refugees who tired of no light or heat, offering those
in distress special emergency rate.
Things are getting back to normal and the Inn is operating
as usual which means we have a great place for you to escape to in order to
rest up for the coming holidays. You
don’t have to be refugee to get a good rate in the next two weeks, so give us a
call to get a little peace and quiet before things really get hopping, which
they will do for us very soon. We are
completely booked for Christmas and New Years.
Speaking of which, Russ and I and all the staff here at the
Arroyo Vista Inn wish you and yours the very best at this holiday season and
hope that 2012 will be a good year for you.
Thank you for your support and patronage in 2011. Come visit us soon!
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