There were 80,665 people who read Noozhawk this past week. What’s my take on your top stories? I’m glad you asked.
1. Major Power Outage Causes Disruptions Across Santa Barbara
A massive power outage turned out the lights for more than 22,000 customers in Santa Barbara and Montecito the evening of Oct. 2. Among those left in the dark were more than 1,000 Tony Bennett fans who were stranded outside The Granada Theatre before his performance.
Rondi Guthrie, spokeswoman for Southern California Edison, said the outage struck at 5:35 p.m. after some kind of a failure at a utility substation at Edison and Gutierrez streets on the Lower Eastside.
“It’s a big outage,” Guthrie told Noozhawk. “A substation bank went out, came back on, and went out again.”
Although more than 22,000 people were powerless at the peak of the breakdown, repair crews appeared to have that figure winnowed to about 1,200 by 8 p.m., according to Edison’s outage map.
The Santa Barbara Fire Department had a flurry of emergency calls to rescue people stuck in elevators at The Granada, Nordstrom and Santa Barbara City College.
Meanwhile, outside The Granada, concert-goers milled about while waiting to learn whether the Tony Bennett show would go on or be canceled. It was postponed.
Guthrie said the exact cause of the outage was still being determined.
High temperatures may have been a factor, however. Santa Barbara was baking like an open oven with a high of 94 degrees — an Oct. 2 record.
Noozhawk had its own spike during the meltdown. Our Tom Bolton had a story posted not long after the outage was reported, and traffic was electrified throughout the night as readers checked back for our updates. Mobile phones accounted for about 70 percent of our visits during a 2½-hour period at midevening.
2. Katherine Lucatero of Santa Barbara, 1993-2014
Kathy Lucatero died Sept. 22. If the reader traffic on her obituary is any indication, few people in Santa Barbara didn’t have the privilege of knowing her during her 21 short years on this earth.
By all accounts, friends and acquaintances describe her as sweet, loving, confident, genuine, beautiful and vivacious. The Santa Barbara native attended local schools, graduating from Santa Barbara High School in 2011. At the time of her death she was attending Santa Barbara City College and had hopes of pursing an accounting degree.
In her Noozhawk obituary, her family said she worked hard but had a wonderful sense of humor and was prone to pulling pranks. She took her dancing and music seriously, enjoying folklórico, cumbias, salsa, mariachi and banda.
Lucatero died at Stanford Medical Center of an undisclosed medical condition.
She is survived by her parents, Maria and Jesús Lucatero; siblings Lisa and Jesse Lucatero; and her boyfriend of seven years, Jesús Uriarte.
A Rosary service is scheduled for 7 p.m. Oct. 5 at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 1740 Cliff Drive. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Oct. 6 at the church, followed by interment at Santa Barbara Cemetery, 901 Channel Drive.
A fund has been started to help the family with medical and funeral expenses. Click here to make an online donation.
3. UC Santa Barbara Professor Arrested on False Imprisonment Charge
A UC Santa Barbara professor was arrested on a felony false imprisonment charge after an alleged domestic dispute at his home in the North Campus Faculty Housing Complex.
UCSB police Sgt. Rob Romero said officers responded to the apartment of Kevin Falvey, 56, just after 6 p.m. Sept. 26 after several reports of a disturbance. One of the calls may have been from the alleged female victim; at least one other was from a neighbor.
The victim, a woman whose name was not disclosed, was uninjured in the incident, Romero said.
He said Falvey was arrested without incident,
Falvey, an associate professor in the Philosophy Department, has since been released from custody and is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 21 in Santa Barbara County Superior Court.
4. 2 Injured in Scooter-Bicyclist Head-On Collision
The circumstances may sound improbable, but no one who has been buzzed by a bicyclist racing like a bat out of hell down a vertical grade could be surprised by the collision that occurred Oct. 1 when a bicycle and a scooter met head-on in the foothills above Santa Barbara.
According to Santa Barbara County fire Capt. David Sadecki, a scooter rider was traveling uphill in the 2000 block of North San Marcos Road just after noon when the vehicle collided with a bicyclist riding downhill.
The wreck happened on a straight section of the narrow roadway, which is known for its hairpin turns. The crash site, less than a mile south of Highway 154, is near the scene of a March horse-trailer wreck that left two horses dead and several others badly injured.
Both riders were injured in the collision and taken by ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital. Authorities have not yet disclosed their names.
The cause of the crash is under investigation by the California Highway Patrol.
5. Carpinteria Woman Wounded But Alive After Being Attacked By Black Bear
A Carpinteria woman got the surprise of her life while walking with her dogs near her avocado ranch the afternoon of Sept. 22. She’s very lucky it didn’t cost her her life.
Emily Miles told our Lara Cooper that she was walking in Rincon Canyon when she saw a black bear chasing her two dogs back down the trail. As soon as the bear spotted her, she became the object of the animal’s attention.
“It was a good-sized bear,” said Miles, who estimated its size at around 300 pounds.
The bear attacked, knocking her to the ground, clawing her back and biting her thigh. But Miles wasn’t going to take it lying down.
“I gave it all I had,” she said. “I knew my life was on the line.”
She was able to fight off the attack, and then staggered up the trail to a friend’s house.
Miles was rushed to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where she was treated for back injuries, a broken rib and the thigh bite.
Janice Mackey, spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish & Wildlife, said bear traps have been placed in the area, but the bear apparently is still on the lam.
Meanwhile, in another unusual encounter with nature, a woman was attacked by a bobcat Oct. 2 at Alisal Guest Ranch near Solvang.
Authorities say the woman suffered minor injuries, but the bobcat — which appeared to be sick — was tracked down and killed. The animal was to be tested for rabies.
• • •
What’s better than one great white shark attack? A great white shark attacking another great white shark.
(Barcroft TV video)
• • •
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.