Power On At Cuthbert, Kids Back In School, Idiot With Drone Halts Fire Attack In Somis

Kids in Malibu get to go to school today for the first time in three days.

Electricity has been restored to all of Malibu.

The central part of Malibu … the Cuthbert Circuit … was Malibu’s first PSPS … Public Safety Power Shutoff.

Southern California Edison pulled the plug at about 8:45 on Wednesday night.

That was just after the winds had peaked … in the Paradise Cove area.

Wind gusts were 48 miles per hour just before the power was turned off.

That is far below the former state standard  … of 92 mile per hour gusts for three seconds … that were the rule in California until the California Public Utilities Commission rewrote the law last year.

Edison officials tell KBUU that it is not only wind speed that is used to make the call to turn off the power.

Observations in the field … as to blowing debris.

Also … some equipment is rated for certain amounts of stress … and needs to be de-energized after reaching tolerances.

Malibu residents were generally furious that the power was still out late into the afternoon …

Edison crews were patrolling each pole and line… looking for damage … and bringing the power back literally one street at a time.

All the area was reported back on line before sunset Halloween night.

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Malibu is not quite out of the woods this morning …. in terms of Santa Anas.

Winds are gusting out of the north at 25 miles an hour before sunrise … at the weather gauge at Camp 8 at Upper Las Flores Canyon.

Some Malibu-area motorists got alarmed last night … as that big fire near Santa Paula was visible from Kanan Dume Road.

It’s a bit of an optical illusion up there … the fire 20 miles distant appears to be much closer at night … when visual frames of reference disappear.

You can’t see Thousand Oaks or the freeways between us and the distant mountains … the light are blocked by the topography.

This tricked a lot of people during the Thomas Fire … 2 years ago.

Last night … sheriff’s deputies and the fire department got a few reports of local fires … from people seeing the flames at the Maria Fire.

That fire … well north of Camarillo … was zero percent controlled this morning.

The Maria Fire has grown to just over 8 thousand acres.

Winds laid down a great deal overnight.

The cold temperatures have reduced the fires ability to aggressively run down hill. 

The fore has been kept to the mountains north of state route 118 near Somis …. that’s north of Camarillo.

And night flying helicopters had to abandon their efforts overnight.

That’s because some genius was flying a drone in the fire area.