- Edison tells Malibu the power will be cut due to high winds.
- But the power didn’t go out.
- Another anti Malibu school district board member is now board president.
- Plans for a Malibu hotel to spread its business to both sides of PCH go before the planning commission today.
It’s the Monday edition … from Radio Malibu …. 99-point-1 … KBUU News.
Good morning …. I’m Hans Laetz reporting.
Winds To (Finally) Die Down
Santa Ana winds were supposed to die down last night.
They didn’t.
Peak gusts of around 35 miles an hour were clocked at the windiest measurement stations overnight.
At sunrise … they were gusting to. miles at Decker Canyon …. miles at Zuma Ridge … and miles at Camp 8… upper Las Flores.
Last night … 40 mile an hour winds were predicted …. but the Red Flag Warnings expired.
The latest forecast is for the winds to back off this morning.
SCE Emergency Outage Called Off Sunday
Well … the phone calls and e-mails went out Sunday morning … as peak winds hit 79 miles an hour up in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Southern California Edison engineers planned to switch off power to Malibu Sunday morning … to protect us from line failure and fire.
That would be unprecedented … the first time a city in Los Angeles County would ever be intentionally switched off due to anticipated high winds.
Mountaintop wind gauges northwest of Malibu clocked 79 miles per hour … the Camp 8 station above Billionaire’s Beach hit 65 mph.
But no deliberate blackouts, and only a few unplanned outages, developed in Malibu yesterday.
By 2 o’clock …. the intentional blackout warning was cancelled.
The company saw its stock price drop 11 percent when the Thomas Fire broke out two weeks ago in Santa Paula.
The state of California has told Edison that its power lines may have caused the Thomas Fire.
Investors are concerned that parent company Edison International may be liable for billions in fire damages and firefighting costs.
California utility law does not prohibit turning off circuits … like this.
But it does not allow it … either.
The consequences of an intentional blackout could be serious.
Blacked out traffic signals.
Electric gates or garage doors that are inoperative.
Water pumps stop.
Businesses with no sales computers … and radio stations with no power.
Edison is taking steps to protect public safety … by stepping outside the law and making public policy decisions in the vacuum of a California Public Utilities Commission that is apparently overwhelmed.
Farmers Market Gets `Winded Out’
The Malibu Farmers Market was cancelled yesterday.
That was the first time in its history that it was cancelled due to high winds.
Thomas Fire Burns 300 Square Miles, 20 Miles from Malibu
While Malibu was getting hit by 65 mile per hour gust on the beach … it was relatively calm along the fire front at the Thomas Fire in Santa Barbara County and Ventura County yesterday.
Firefighters from as far away as New York took advantage of the lull in winds to cut defensive lines …. and to work on hot spots.
The fire is now at 270 thousand acres … that’s 300 square miles … with 45 percent containment.
People in part of Carpinteria have been allowed to return home today.
But 18 thousand homes … within 40 to 60 miles of Malibu … remain threatened.
Here’s the next worry … the fire is burning north … unconfined … in the Sespe River wild country … the rugged… roadless mountain wilderness west of the Grapevine.
It could burn up there …. threatening to burn into civilization … for weeks.
The cause has not been determined, but state officials have notified Southern California Edison it may have been their equipment that failed near Santa Paula … to spark the fire.
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You are listening to the latest news … from Radio Malibu … 99-point-1 … KBUU.
It’s [[[ TIME ]]] .
Santa Monica Selects New Malibu School Board President
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School Board has shuffled its officers.
After three years … Laurie Lieberman is stepping down as president of the school board.
And the board elected Richard Tahvildaran-Jesswein as president … and Jon Kean was elected to serve as vice president.
Both have come out with the Santa Monica majority … reluctant to creating a separate Malibu Unified School District.
But they have supported making an offer to Malibu …. for dealing with weaning the Santa Monica schools off the rich vein of property tax revenues from Malibu.
City May Go Into Electricity Business
Malibu may join 55 other cities in L-A County … as the city may go into the electricity business.
On Wednesday night … there will be an unusual city council meeting.
Two items on the agenda …. one of them joining in a plan to undercut Southern California Edison’s electricity monopoly.
The other … regulating the home delivery of marijuana … as California decriminalizes recreational cannibis use next month.
We’ll have more on those items … tomorrow.
Malibu Beach Inn Request To Cross PCH Up Tonight
Tonight … the Planning Commission will look at the Malibu Beach Inn’s plans to straddle Pacific Coast Highway with its business.
The hotel is seeking to expand its restaurant … which it has already done without city permits.
It wants to open its dining room to people who are not staying at the boutique hotel … which it has already done in violation of the agreement it made not to do that 10 years ago.
It wants to build a swimming pool in its parking lot … which is already far too small for the number of restaurant seats and hotel rooms.
It wants to use parking valets to move cars in a zig zag pattern across P C H … with our doing what the city considers to be an accurate traffic projection.
They want to serve food and drinks on the swimming pool deck . and promise to limit that to hotel guests even though they promised to do that at the hotel and violated that promise already.
All this goes to the city Planning Commission tonight.
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The time is [[[ TIME ]]] .
We’ll have the traffic in 65 seconds.
Weather for the Malibu.
Less winds …. with a high of ((( 73 ))) today on the beach … ((( 75. ))) in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Winds could gust as high as 25 mph over the mountains this morning … dying out by midday…
But they may switch to coming off the ocean after noon.
And that could bring us areas of smoke.
Sunset tonight is at ((( 4:44. ))).
After that ….
Lows ((( 54 ))) at the beach … down to ((( 44 ))) in some canyons.
Tomorrow should be ((( cool and foggy for the first time in two weeks ))).
Right now … at Trancas it’s ((( 64 ))).
Upper Malibu Canyon … ((( 54. ))).
And at Civic Center Los Angeles ((( 55 ))).
In the ocean … ((( 57 )))) in the water at Trancas Tower 14.
Waves today are ((( 2-3 ))) feet high is the forecast … but it looks kinds flat right now.
Fading old WNW swell mix and trace SSW swell lapping in this morning. ))).
(((( High tide at 5 point 7 feet at 8:29.
Low tide at 3:42.
A five foot high tide tonight at 10:14. )))))
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The KBUU Newswire is posted midmornings … and the radio station is streaming … at radiomalibu.net and kbu.fm .
Also .. at the Malibu Times website.
Breaking news always goes first on the radio … at F-M 99-point-1.
Our signal now comes in reliably … from County Line all the way to Big Rock … with a couple of holes at Ralphs and Dan Blocker Beach.