Four-Story Scaffolding Collapse in a Violent Wind Storm Closes Part of Garden St. in Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - Work crews spent the morning taking apart a massive pile of twisted metal where a large scaffolding collapsed in a violent wind storm Tuesday night in downtown Santa Barbara.
The scaffolding was in front of a new 36-unit housing project at 425 Garden Street.
An alert from Santa Barbara Police advised drivers to avoid the area. During the mid-morning hours, one lane was open but some of the scaffolding was still hanging 30 feet over the street.
A resident nearby said winds in excess of 50 miles per hour came through with a direct hit Tuesday night about 10p.m..
The metal did not get tossed to other properties. It did damage two trees in the area, which showed signs of broken branches as the scaffolding was being removed.
At the same time an aggressive rain, lightning and thunder event roared over the area causing trees to come down, a power pole broke off, electric lines were down and hundreds were without power.
Several intersections were without signals including at Micheltorena and De la Vina and Arrellaga and Castillo. Some drivers did not yield to check both directions during the outage and there were several violations and close calls with possible crashes.
A power pole was snapped in the 900 block of Flora Vista on the Mesa. Power lines were down in a backyard and many residents were in the dark. Santa Barbara City fire and police were checking the area for life hazards late Tuesday night.
There was also a massive tree down in the 6500 block of Del Playa Drive in Isla Vista that narrowly missed a multi-story home. It took hours to carve it up.
(More details, video and photos will be added later today.)
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