Severe Weather from Winter Storm Kayla's Warm Side Kills California Woman

One person was killed in Southern California as the warm side of Winter Storm Kayla hammered the area with very strong winds and heavy rain.

The death occurred Sunday in the Pacific Beach neighborhood of San Diego when a giant tree fell onto four nearby cars, according to NBC San Diego. The victim, identified as a 48-year-old woman, was driving along Ingraham Street when the large oak tree was brought down by strong winds, the report added. Four cars were crushed by the fallen tree.

“It happened within seconds,” Chris Travis, who was driving behind the woman, told NBC San Diego. “I'd say a minute of us pulling up. It was really emotional, it was rough. because you just felt helpless, it could have been us.”

(MORE: Where We Expect Severe Weather To Hit Next)

The National Weather Service office in Oxnard, California, reported thunderstorm wind damage west of Santa Paula that took down two or three trees, trapping six cars near the intersection of Briggs and Faulkner roads. Winds gusted as high as 91 mph in Southern California over the weekend.

Late Monday morning, a tree was brought down by strong winds and pinned a woman in Burbank, according to CBS L.A. She was rescued by authorities but suffered minor to moderate injuries, the report added.

Two ABC 10 journalists were also hurt by a falling tree in the Mira Mesa neighborhood of San Diego on Monday. The station reported Marie Coronel was seriously injured and would need surgery, while her photographer, Mike Gold, suffered a compound leg fracture in the incident and immediately went into surgery.

According to an NWS damage report, a skyscraper had some of its windows blown out by strong winds Monday morning.

At Torrey Pines Golf Club, which was hosting a PGA Tour event, the winds uprooted many of the course's trees and poor weather forced the final round to be postponed until Monday. Crews worked quickly to carve up the trees that had fallen, but with as many as 20 large trees felled, play was delayed yet again Monday to get the course cleaned up.

“It’s devastating,” city golf manager Mark Marney told the San Diego Union-Tribune.

In addition to the damage left behind, high winds also left thousands without power in San Diego. Some 140,000 customers lost power in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas at the height of the outages, according to the Associated Press.

In Los Angeles, flash flooding was reported in the Burbank area at Interstate 5 and Roscoe Boulevard. In Monterey Park, wind gusts blew a roof off of a home and onto nearby power lines near South Ditman Avenue. The NWS also reported several downed trees close to Mulholland Highway and Highway 2.  

Near Santa Barbara, there were reports of flash flooding with mud and rocks across Highway 154.