=. Power restored in Malibu just before noon … after 18 hours of intentional blackout.  

=. SCE crews needed all morning to inspect and repair the lines to restore power this morning.

=. The four Malibu schools are in session today … but the new germinator at Malibu High failed to kick in.

=. Angry parents roasted the school board last night … for the failure to provide emergency power and Internet at Malibu Schools.

=.  The president will be in LA today … the governor will crash his LAX arrival.

=.  But there is no word on presidential motorcade traffic impacts. 

=. We may get more rain this weekend than at first predicted.

=. But it will be a gentle rain Saturday Sunday and Monday.

Electrical Service Turned Back On In Western Malibu

Power is back on at Malibu.  Electric service was stored in the noon hour … some 15 hours after SCE announced that its crews were beginning to inspect the lines after high winds this week. 

Last night at 9:09 … Southern California Edison announced that its in house weather team had given the all clear … to mark the end of the power blackouts.

That took until midday today.

Generator Fails To Turn Over At Malibu High/Middle Schools, As Parents Roast The School Board

Power was -not- back on at Malibu High School and Malibu Middle School School this afternoon.

Temporary generators were hauled in Thursday … just before a school board meeting to hear outrage from Malibu parents about repeated school closings.

For six days this month … classes have been cancelled due to power cutoffs alone.

That six day total does not include school closures caused by the actual fires.  Only Southern California Edison power failures … or promises to turn off the power. 

But the generator at the high school and middle school failed.   No ignition.

Parents have been begging for generators for two years.

Last night … some Malibu parents drove 45 miles … around the closure on PCH to Santa Monica… to beg the school board for electricity.

Kevin Keegan from the Malibu High PTA.

70857 KEEGAN

“As president of the PTA for the middle school in high school, I’m asking the district and Board of Education for back up power sources and emergency communication equipment, that will ensure schools can remain open when So Cal Edison cuts power due to PS PS events.”

79858 DEPOALA

“My name is Mark DePaola and I am President of the Malibu elementary school PTA.

“After the November PSP, I first contacted the district with my concerns about closures and our lack of back up power. 

“Carey Upton (the district operations director) replied and let me know that Malibu elementary school couldn’t support solar cells, that AQMD would not support generators, and pretty much directly said it was Malibu’s fault for closing schools when the power was out.

“So we knew we were on our own.

“Since November, I followed up 5 times … 5 emails … over the last three months without a single other reply from the district … asking for back up power.

“This is before these fires.”

Another parent … Josh Spiegel … coated his 2 minutes with biting sarcasm.

He thanked the school board for having bureaucrats yammer on and on for 90 minutes … before the public was allowed to speak.

70859 JOSH SPEIGEL

“You know, we totally didn’t want to say what we have to say before cooking dinner and putting our kids to bed.

“But I’m pretty sure all the parents are thrilled to hear … for the last hour and a half … to hear about how great the employees are at (doing) their jobs, while our kids were learning how to poop in the dark today.”

Another parent …. Heather Alfaro:

70860 HEATHER ALFARO 

“Since the Woolsey fire, Edison has ramped up their disruptions of power to protect their own liability, for six years.

“The topic of generators and Starlink being made available to our campuses has been a line item for the site council this entire school year. 

“What have we done in the last eight years to prepare for today?

“Generators are available to rent within four hours. Just look at Pavilions: our local grocery store manages the power outages.

“If you have driven around Malibu in the last couple of weeks, you will see generators peppering our streets, to power up cell towers and traffic lights.

The (LAUSD) Palisades district lost multiple schools, but they immediately implemented distance learning, they provided learning packets and they moved their students to other locations. 

“Our students have had zero resources provided to them, and all of our schools are still standing.”

Wade Major, who lost his family home on Big Rock Mesa, said he was gratified to have got a comforting phone call from school superintendent Antonio Shelton.

But phone calls can only do so much.

70861 WADE MAJOR 

“I want you all to imagine what it would be like, if 20,000 people in Santa Monica were homeless overnight.  And in order to reach out and get anything done for your schools, you had to drive to Point Dume with hat in hand and beg the majority of three or four Malibu school board members to do right by you.

“It would be humiliating.

“And that’s what Malibu feels like in like in situations like this.”

Parent Mia Skelton. 

70862 MIA SKELTON 

“Good evening I’m a parent with a child at Melbourne middle and a child at Webster.

“By my count, Webster has lost 23 days of instruction this school year … out of 86 days.

“That’s over a quarter of the school year. 

“Malibu middle and high have lost 18 school days.

“What is the plan to make up for this learning deficit? 

“I’ve heard other districts, taking steps to recover lost time by adjusting their schedules.

“They are adding days.”

“Why are Malibu kids still waiting for action to secure their education?”

Parent Kim Ford:

70863 KIM FORD

“We’ve had school closures due to SCE planned power outages, and you knew that these closures were a possibility. 

“Maybe they weren’t as frequent in years past, but it’s been brought up continuously and everyone knew it was a possibility. 

“Our PTA has been asking for months for a back up power solution.

“We need an immediate solution to provide temporary power during these outages.”

And finally … a teacher. 

Julie Jones … a sixth grade teacher at Malibu Middle School.

70864 JULIE JONES

“At Malibu High, our phones are connected to the Internet.

“If we have no Internet, we have no phones. We have the landline in the office and a few walkie-talkies, but no phones. 

“The cell service in Malibu is spotty at best, as you know.

“So when I’m there in charge of the safety of 25+ kids for five periods a day, it’s very stressful to say the least.

“So when we say no power, we really should be saying no power, Internet, or Internet.

“Students are exhausted. Their eyes are glazed over.”

Little did that teacher know that … sitting on the classroom roof just over her head … a functional Internet connection to the outside world.

It could have been connected to the school’s phone system.

We installed it … it’s never been hooked up to the school’s compute router.

In 2017 .. the Malibu city council asked us at KBUU radio to study the issue of internet and phone failure during Southern California Edison backlots.

Seven years ago … KBUU helped the school district build an internet relay connection … between Santa Monica High School and Malibu High School.

This microwave connection uses the KBUU radio towers at Rancho del Cielo … think of it as a 25 mile long ethernet cable from the outside world …. Across the bay … to Malibu High … and to the elementary school on Point Dume.

That internet connection has been functioning for seven years.

It’s on the roof right now … functioning fully … on the roof at Malibu High and Malibu Elementary. 

All the school district has to do is plug their router into the KBUU-supplied line. 

Last night … the Santa Monica district staff said Internet has failed to the school campuses.

No .. it hasn’t.

The district IT staff failed to plug it in. 

This morning, the generator brought in to Malibu High had an ignition failure. 

This afternoon … the relay from Malibu High to Santa Monica failed to connect.

It hasn’t been used in six years … the district is totally in control of it … the IT people need to figure out what’s wrong. 

Newsom Signs $2.5 Billion Fire Relief Bill OK’s By Republicans and Democrats

California’s Legislature passed yesterday passed a set of bills Thursday to spend  $2.5 billion iCalifornia tax money …. Money they expect the federal government ro backfill.

The bills passed unanimously in both the Assembly and the Senate as part of an extended special session called by Gov. Gavin Newsom in response to the Los Angeles area wildfires. 

Newsom signed the bills at a press conference in Pasadena Thursday afternoon, releasing the funds immediately.

“This is about distilling a sense of hopefulness,” he said.

The two fires were 40,000 acres — killed 27 people, destroyed 12,000 structures and displaced tens of thousands of people.  

One damage estimate is above 200 billion dollar.s.

The California money will come from the state’s reserve fund dedicated to economic uncertainties.. 

That rainy day fund had about $8.3 billion as of Jan. 10, according 

Then President Joe Biden said on Jan. 12 that the federal government would reimburse 100% of state funds that are spent within 180 days. 

State officials expect the $2.5 billion will be reimbursed.

Debris Removal Town Hall Sunday at 3 On The Internet

How will the government handle the task of removing debris … from 5000 destroyed houses in the Palisades???
700 of those destroyed houses are in Malibu.

L A County will host a internet town hall … on how the government plans to do that.

Supervisor Lindsay Horvath has called the meeting. 

This Sunday at 3 p-m.

No Word, Still, From Caltrans On PCH Repair Schedule

Still no word from Caltrans officials .. on their plans for Pacific Coast Highway.

As KBUU news has been reporting … the state has yet to start any repairs on the 5 miles of State Highway 1 that were damaged by the fire … January 7th.

The state has cleared the debris … like burned power poles.

And it has repaired the traffic lights … which are all flashing red. 

Long sections of highway are now exposed to rushing ocean waves… due to the destruction of wooden piers and wooden retention structures that used to protect the highway.

On the inland side of the road … there are numerous places where landslides will occur … as wooden retention poles and vegetation that held the rocky cliffs back were vaporized. 

A longstanding landslide at Porto Marina … which had been repaired last year with wooden beams … looks like it has reactivated … from broken water pipes up the hill.

LA Mayor Loses Her Brother’s Family Home In Malibu Fire

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Thursday that her brother, who lives in Malibu,  was among the thousands of people who lost their homes in the Palisades fire.

This, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“The loss that you’re going through, I share indirectly. It’s hit my family too,” Bass said at a meeting of the Pacific Palisades Community Council. “My brother, who has lived in Malibu for 40 years, been through many fires, evacuated many times — this time didn’t get away.”

Bass and other elected officials spoke to about 1,000 people who attended the meeting of the volunteer organization on Zoom.

Rain On Horizon – Rain Is Defined As Liquid Falling From The Sky

All eyes on the weekend forecast as southern California will receive its first winter storm of the season. 

This system is not the typical cold front or atmospheric river event. 

Rather … it’s a bizarre little patch of cold air that will blow in from the north and east … then out to sea near Pt Conception by late afternoon Sunday. 

This pattern will allow for a good amount of water to be picked up … 

The computer models are showing more and more rain to be picked up … and then dropped.

But not much rain …and what we get will be showery and on and off.

The rain will be spread out over a day and a half starting Saturday night.

The rainfall rate should be very gentle. 

That’s good news in terms of reducing fire danger and and decreasing the likelihood of debris flows in the recent fire area.