Santa Barbara Wild Fires

[shabal57]

Just watching the news and it isn't too good about the Santa Barbara wild fires. It is actually heartbreaking to see and is affecting thousands of people. Our first stop on the Pacific West Coast Cruise is this Sunday, May 10th and it is supposed to be Santa Barbara. I have no idea whether the fires will affect this port. Are they anywhere in the vicinity of the harbor?

[49er]

The fires are terrible in Santa Barbara but hopefully by Sunday the winds will have died down and the fires will be under control. You will tender into shore and the fires should not impact that, however since this fire is so close to the city, it will certainly be very evident particularly up by the Mission. Santa Barbara is my hometown and I am saddened by the all these horrible devastating fires the residents have suffered through.

49er

[Cruisin' Chick]

I believe you'll be about southeast of where the fire is hitting. We live about 90 miles east of SB, and yesterday afternoon I was looking out an upstairs bedroom and could see the cloud of smoke. This morning, it was just haze. Hopefully the fire will be under containment by next week, but it would take a day or two for the air quality to improve. So I wouldn't count on any "active" activities in port, just in case.

[Bruin Steve]

I lived in Santa Barbara many years ago--1979-81--

It's truly a great city, just a little hard for me to earn a decent living there and afford to live there at the same tiime...

 

We now live about an hour down the 101 from Santa Barbara...We had all that gray stuff in the sky last couple of days that Patty was talking about...

 

Hopefully, it's all under control by Sunday, though I'd expect residual smoke and haze even then...

 

The fires are all inland, stick close to the coast and downtown area and you'll be fine...but be wary if you are sensitive to smoke...

 

It's a beautiful city whenever...Enjoy...

[kappellof]

Watching our local TV news from the Central Coast, the fire is nowhere near containment tonight. It's expanded in size from 500 acres 24 hours ago to over 2400 acres. Zero percent containment. As of 9:00 pm pst the fire was close to jumping Hwy 154, a major shortcut from Hwy 101 through the hills. I don't personally see this fire contained for many more days, given history of past fires. Winds are too high and it's moving too fast. One of the fire dept supervisors on TV says "if you feel threatened...leave immediately...we may not be able to issue a mandatory evacuation in time...".

[Cruisin' Chick]

Watching our local TV news from the Central Coast, the fire is nowhere near containment tonight. It's expanded in size from 500 acres 24 hours ago to over 2400 acres. Zero percent containment. As of 9:00 pm pst the fire was close to jumping Hwy 154, a major shortcut from Hwy 101 through the hills. I don't personally see this fire contained for many more days, given history of past fires. Winds are too high and it's moving too fast. One of the fire dept supervisors on TV says "if you feel threatened...leave immediately...we may not be able to issue a mandatory evacuation in time...".

 

It's pretty worrisome, isn't it? I remember last fall when I looked out a window and saw a cloud of smoke, and realized it wasn't one of the fires that I had heard about. We walked up to the next major street to a shopping center and looked at the flames on our local mountain. It was sure scary, but because of the expensive homes up there (just like the area in Santa Barbara, seven-figure homes), there was a lot of water drops even late at night.

 

Hopefully the winds will decrease for a long while so that the aircraft can do their thing.