Unlike other surrounding communities, Burbank has made it through a generational wind event, and while many trees went down and there were power outages, the City came through the event with minimal damage. Winds recorded around 80 mph at Hollywood Burbank Airport and gusts as much as 58 mph at the myBurbank Weather Center were recorded.
Because of the overwhelming number of calls for service on the Verdugo Fire Dispatch network, each city was given its own tac channel and dispatched its own calls for a more efficient system. According to Batallion Chief James Moye of the Burbank Fire Department, Burbank fire units responded to about 300 calls, of which 100 were for trees down.
There were also numerous reports of wires that were down. Fire crews checked all reports to determine if they were communication wires or live electricity wires and made sure all areas were safe before moving on to the next call.
On many streets, parkway trees were toppled, blocking streets until crews were able to clear them at a later time. Several trees also damaged vehicles, and some fell against houses, although there was no significant damage. No houses were red-tagged as of this report. One tree toppled o Harvard and blocked the road going up to the Castaways.
There were also numerous power outages throughout the City, but Water and Power crews quickly worked to restore the power to those affected. As of 3 pm on Wednesday, there were only three remaining outages per their map, with each outage affecting less than 10 customers.
The Burbank Unified School District first canceled classes on Wednesday. Still, after considering the amount of wind damage they needed to access for student safety and the air quality so bad, they decided to cancel school for the remainder of the week. The California Department of Education encourages school districts to submit J-13A waiver requests. J-13A waivers are used in cases of emergency school closures to prevent the loss of attendance-based funding.
The City of Burbank has a webpage dedicated to centralized emergency updates, resources, and advisories related to the ongoing high winds and surrounding fires throughout Los Angeles County. According to the City, there are currently NO evacuation orders or warnings in effect in Burbank. They stress to stay prepared. Keep emergency supplies ready, have a plan, and stay informed.
Presently, there are no fires threatening Burbank but people are to not let their guard down. There is also another Santa Ana wind condition predicted for next week but will not be as severe.
myBurbank is giving up to the second updates on our X account. Follow @myBurbankNEWS for immediate information as it occurrs.
