[MarinTeams] Storm report: Burney

[Bill Smith]

A friend, and fellow amateur operator who lives in Burney, CA related this
story to me tonight.  It is the first time he has been able to use his
telephone and Internet since the storm first hit last week.  Burney is a
small town east of Redding in northern California.  Burney is remote and in
the mountains, and subject to frequent disruptions of utility power and
telephone.  During this last storm, however, the town was exposed to rain
(it usually snows in Burney) and very strong winds as high as 85 to 100 Mph.
The winds uprooted and snapped the trunks and limbs of trees which
reportedly struck the post office, a grocery store, the school and a number
of private homes.  A number of roads were blocked by the fallen trees.

PG&E trucks from all over northern California, including locally here from
Oakland have been dispatched to the area to restore downed power lines, and
he further reports his house power has been restored just today. Nearby
towns are still without power, and telephone and Internet have been out of
service.  Although they live in the middle of town, he and his wife live in
a house heated by firewood, and he was able to supply his house with
electricity from a generator. He has lived in Burney for years but said he
had never experienced winds as strong as in this latest storm.  His amateur
station includes long wire antennas, but they have been up for a while and
the wire was literally blown apart and fell down.  Although he has been able
to put the antenna up temporarily it will have to be replaced next spring.
He stated his only access to the outside world during the outage was his
handheld radio and satellite TV, and the latter was available only because
he had a generator.

73 de Bill, AB6MT