SCE cuts power atop Las Flores, Rambla Pacifico and Stunt Road
Southern California Edison shut off electricity Saturday morning as Santa Ana winds gusted to 41 mph at Camp 8.
By Hans Laetz
THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED AT 9:05 AND UPDATED AT 9:23 AM SATURDAY. CONDITIONS MAY CHANGE.
Southern California Edison has turned off the electricity for the houses at the top of Las Flores Canyon, Rambla Pacifico and Stunt Road.
High winds and a threat to power line safety are the reason. SCE's computers give an 11 p.m. Saturday estimate for the power to be switched back on.
No fires have been reported.
Wind gusts at Camp 8, at the top of Las Flores Canyon, have been clocked at up to 41 mph Saturday morning — strong, but not as strong as the National Weather Service had said were possible.
Upper Malibu Canyon, from the tunnel north to the 101 Freeway, remains under possible intentional blackout warnings. This includes the subdivisions of western Calabasas.
All of the City of Malibu remains below the threshold level for possible intentional blackout warnings, however.
The NWS says "weak to moderate Santa Ana winds will peak this morning." A Red Flag Warning is in effect from 2 AM to 6 PM today, but only for the highest points in the local mountains.
Locations near the PCH may see top winds of 35 mph, but probably not that strong in most places.
Comments (1)
The power cutoff last night to this morning was completely unnecessary as the winds were not that significant. This is the new norm. The real issue is that the history of Malibu fires being started by downed power lines is insignificant. The fact that Edison has had over 30 years to underground their grid but instead chose to not properly maintain it, is the real issue. Instead they have chosen profit for their shareholders over that of supplying reliable and affordable electricity to its customers, who now have to purchase back up systems to overcome Edison’s incompetence.