Gaviota Goes Dark in South County’s First Purposeful Power-Down

After warning Santa Barbara County for several weeks that the flow of electricity might stop if fire weather developed, Southern California Edison pulled the plug in areas west of Goleta overnight on Saturday. The planned outage affected 632 customers from Gaviota to Point Conception from 5:30 p.m. on Saturday to about 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. The National Weather Service simultaneously called Red Flag fire conditions for south Santa Barbara County. Edison spokesperson David Song said both weather conditions and existing equipment yet to be upgraded were the reasons for the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS).

Edison parked its Community Outreach Vehicle at Girsh Park from 9 p.m. to midnight as a mobile charging station for customers, an area well outside the outage zone, Song acknowledged. About two dozen people came by, he said, including a couple of elected officials. The power-down affected no medical patients known to Edison, Song said. He advised anyone reliant on electricity for life-saving medications or equipment to register at the “stay informed” box at the SCE.com/psps website.