CNN News:美国加州山火肆虐不止 致大规模撤离和停电

First story out of California. Hurricane force is a term to describe wind speeds that blow at or faster than 74 miles per hour and some of the winds buffeting wildfires near Los Angeles are at hurricane force. These are the Santa Ana winds — hot, dry, dusty gusts that blow from the desert across southern California out towards the Pacific Coast.

They can be at their worst in October and they make it very difficult, if not impossible, for firefighters to contain or wall in a wildfire. What's known as the Getty Fire was threatening more than 7,000 homes around L.A. last night and it was just one of at least 10 wildfires burning across California. Tens of thousands of acres, each one roughly the size of a football field, have been scorched across the state. Dozens of homes have been lost. Power's been cut off to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses because California's largest utility company doesn't want its equipment sparking new fires in the windy conditions. Schools, houses, businesses even museums have been evacuated.