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ON THE RECORD
Nicholas Schou
Nicholas Schou is an award-winning investigative journalist and author of several books, including Orange Sunshine and Kill the Messenger. If you have tips or stories about Montecito, please email him at newseditor@montecitojournal.net
Fire Chief Kevin Taylor Talks COVID-19 and Crazy Weather
W
hen I first met Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor last year, I remember asking him what the biggest challenge was facing his department. “The weather,” he told me, quickly adding that the sheer unpredictability of Montecito’s weather threats, be they fire or rain, made his job uniquely worrisome. This week, I caught up with Taylor for the second time since the COVID-19 pandemic reached Santa Barbara. Somewhat reassuringly, most of our conversation happened to be about the weird weather. Remember when weather seemed like our biggest threat?
Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor
Q: What the heck happened last Thursday night? The wind actually blew a framed window out of my house! Fortunately it fell on my bed and didn’t break. A: That is what we call a “sundowner,” our version of the Santa Ana winds. They occur in Santa Barbara County in the spring and fall; the ones in the spring are usually stronger than the ones that occur in the fall. In a given year there are usually four or five sundowners but there have been ones that have lasted 14 days in a row, as happened in 2017. They arrive from the north as a result of a change of pressure between Bakersfield and Santa Barbara.
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I saw a fire crew the next morning dealing with a massive Eucalyptus tree that cracked and toppled over the road near a powerline. I assume SoCal Edison had a lot of calls that night; did A vehicular casualty of last week’s windstorm people lose power? Oh yes, people lost power. We had to bring in extra staffing to respond to the windstorm. From Thursday at 5 pm to Friday at 5 pm, we had 26 total calls for service. 22 of those were related to the storm, either because of trees or power lines that were down. The highest sustained winds in the district were at our Cold Spring RAWS, which stands for Remotely Activated Weather Station. It’s located at the top of Cold Spring Trail, where we measured 53 mph sustained winds with gusts to 78 mph. The highest gust was 81 mph. We also have a RAWS down at Casa de Maria and it saw a gust of 43 mph.
ON THE RECORD Page 184 A firetruck blocks traffic near a downed tree on East Valley Road
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16 MONTECITO JOURNAL
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.” – Albert Camus
30 April – 7 May 2020
