Strong winds topple trees, power lines across SLO County 

San Luis Obispo County emergency services fielded hundreds of calls relating to downed trees and power lines during the recent storms, which dropped between 1 and 4 inches of rain across the county and brought wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour between Feb. 3 and 6.

On Feb. 4 around 9 a.m. winds reached 80 miles per hour on Falcon Road in Atascadero, according to the National Weather Service. However, Arroyo Grande and Nipomo seemed to receive the brunt of the storm, dealing with downed power lines and semi-flooded roads.

Nipomo resident Mia Supple told New Times that strong winds toppled a 70-year-old tree on her property on Feb. 4.

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• Courtesy Photo By Mia Supple
• TOPPLE OVER Mia Supple's 70-year-old tree crashed down on her neighbor's driveway after strong wind gusts raged through Nipomo on Feb. 4.

"My neighbor called me at work, and she said, 'I have horrible news,' and I just built this new house, and I was thinking, 'Oh gosh, my tree fell on my house,'" Supple said. "It did end up falling, but it ended up going over my neighbor's driveway and crushing her fence."

Arroyo Grande Public Works Director and Assistant City Manager Bill Robeson told New Times that the city's streets and public infrastructure sustained significant damage.

"On The Pike, 11 poles were damaged along with power and communication lines connected to those poles," he said. "On Sunday, city of Arroyo Grande Public Works crews removed a large eucalyptus in coordination with PG&E and cleared a large amount of debris from accessible areas of The Pike."

On that same day, Feb. 4, Robeson said a tree on private property fell and damaged power and communication lines on Mason Street. He added that several property owners reported damaged roofs due to the strong winds.

"Although drainage inlet cleaning was completed prior to the storm, the winds caused large amounts of debris to accumulate," he said on Feb. 6, adding that the Pike remained closed and PG&E crews continued working on restoring power early in the week.

According to PG&E's Outage Center website, there were no outages reported in the area on Feb. 7.

SLO County Emergency Services Manager Scotty Jalbert told New Times that Lopez Drive had a small mudslide just east of Lopez Lake's dam, but luckily the storms didn't cause the dam to overflow.

"We only got about 2 inches of rain at most over the weekend," he said. "We were expecting, as told by the weather service, that we would see anywhere from 3 to 7 inches of rain."

In preparation for what was forecast to be a more powerful storm, Jalbert said that all emergency services increased the number of available resources and staff, although it wasn't needed. While police and fire departments received hundreds of calls mostly relating to downed power lines, the county's Office of Emergency Services didn't receive nearly as many, with one call pertaining to a water rescue where everyone made it out safely.

"The Sheriff's Office brought on extra deputies, Public Works put on extra road crews and staffed up their department operation center, the Fire Department staffed up their Urban Search and Rescue Team by adding rescue swimmers and adding six additional fire engines over the weekend to help with rescues," he said. "So we were ready, we were on as high of an alert as we could be."

While high tide was projected along the coast, Jalbert said it wasn't nearly as bad as they were expecting. However, in Avila Beach, three sailboats did wash ashore from an increased tide.

"We were told that we could see up to 20-foot waves and we did take some heavy waves, but it was nothing compared to what we saw a month ago," he said of the high tides that pounded the coast in late December and early January. "Overall, the damage from that was very minimal."

County Transportation Division Manager Joshua Roberts told New Times that the roads fared well during the storm, adding that his division also received more than 100 calls relating to downed trees but didn't receive any relating to major damage to county roads, bridges, or culverts. Δ