Fire Chief, City Hall Get Ready For Intentional Blackouts
Written by 991KBU on October 1, 2018
Santa Ana winds have not developed this fall … so far … and knock on wood.
But they were a major topic of discussion at last weekend’s Malibu Public Safety Fair .. at Malibu City Hall.
A large crowd a conference room to hear Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Williams talk about the county’s recommendations for Malibu residents faced with wildfires … called ready Set Go.
In a live interview on KBUU radio from the Preparedness Expo … the fire chief said this year will present an extra challenge … with the likelihood that Southern California Edison will cut the power to Malibu during the most severe windstorms.
NEWSCART 77847 WILLIAMS AAAA :34
QQQ: IF WE HAVE POWER DOWN
“Were working with Public Works and (Waterworks) District 29 to make sure that we have portable generators to keep those generators up and running.
“If that’s not available … we also have extra heavy water tenders that we can bring in and they will be shuttling water.
“That’s not the best case scenario…”
“But we have what we call a PACE progress.
“We have a Primary Plan, an Alternate Plan, a Contingency Plan, and an Emergency Plan.
“Each one of then unique set of items and we work through them.
“But it will be challenging if we have the power go down.”
The fire chief told us that the loss of electricla power in firestorms is something that the fire department trains for … but really hopes doesn’t happen.
NEWSCART 77848 WILLIAMS BBB :16
QQQ: until the POWER IS BACK UP.
“During the ’07 Fire, power was down because lines had burned through and their circuits were automatically shut down.
We can use gravity feed of the water that is still in there, but once that water is gone, that water is gone, until we get the pumps back up.”
During the remote broadcast … City manager Reva Feldman told us that the city is making contingency plans for loss of power as well.
NEWSCART 77849 FELDMAN AAAA :23
QQQ: WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH
“The city is trying to be proactive with the potential shut down of power and we are prepared to activate our Emergency Operations Center here at City Hall.
We do have a backup generator that will keep that facility operational and our intent is to keep communicating with our residents regarding any potential emergencies or danger.”
City manager Reva Feldman and Fire Chief Anthony Williams … interviewed live on KB UU last Saturday.
The potential loss of Southern California Edison electricity was very much on the minds of people at the preparedness expo.
A vendor offering emergency generators was one of the more popular booths.
No Santa Anas are in the long range predictions this week,
In fact .. Malibu will go from summer directly to winter this week.
A winter style rain storm is going to hit starting tomorrow.
But the hot nasty winds hit Malibu an average of 6 days … every October.
In the last 35 years … we have had as many as 10 Santa Ana days in October … and as few as zero.
——
