PCH closed in Huntington Beach, pockets of flooding as string of mega high tides continue Tuesday

A Newport Beach home beloved for its eclectic outdoor decorations, shops along Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach, the Naples Island homes in Long Beach, another day of extreme high tides claimed more flooding victims in Southern California.

Tuesday’s morning tide was expected to be the peak of the week — though advisories continue through Thursday — and city crews up and down the coast had monitored flooding areas in previous days to plug holes in their defenses against seawater while more residents stacked sandbags for protection, but flooding still found its way in at several points.

Pacific Coast Highway was closed between Warner Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard during the morning Tuesday, the city deciding Monday to shut the coastal road where it had already seen flooding so crews and first responders could move around more easily. The closure was extended farther as water started to pour in Tuesday morning.

Pacific Coast Highway will be closed again on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. between Warner Avenue and Anderson Street, Huntington Beach officials said.

The city of Newport Beach closed the waterway beneath the Newport Boulevard Bridge for a couple of hours Tuesday, “a precautionary measure to protect nearby properties from potential flooding caused by boat wakes during the morning high tide,” according to the Newport Beach Police Department. It is expected to be closed again Wednesday morning.

And officials have also suspended parking enforcement through 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 28, so residents can move vehicles to higher ground or to city public parking lots.

A yellow tidal gauge set in the Newport Harbor has become a community gathering point this week. The water was hitting the 8-foot mark at 9 a.m. The peak high tide — under normal circumstances— should be 6.6 feet at about 9:45 a.m.

Tidal levels ended up hitting a record 8.4 feet for Newport Beach, last seen this high in the 1920s, city spokesperson Georgia Rios said.

As tides began to peak around 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, water flooded through Newport Harbor Yacht Club’s boatyard, quickly filling in the streets at 8th and West Bay Avenue. Sandbags were put up on a seawall, but water still infiltrated, with water levels quickly rising.

One street over from the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, at West Bay Avenue and 9th Street, pumps were busy sending water pooled up in the streets back into the bay.

The Pirate House at 35th Street and Marcus Avenue, known in Newport Beach for being decorated with dozens of pirates and other fun outdoor decor, was flooded throughout the ground floor on Tuesday morning. Fire crews were on site helping unload sandbags. Community members also gathered, taking photos of the famous house known for its eclectic decor.

“This house is a landmark; it’s famous,” said Sandy Gold, one of the many residents walking through neighborhoods to assess damage from Tuesday’s high tides. “People come from everywhere just to see that house. I feel really bad for him. It went right through his house.”

Nearby, 36th Street and Marcus Avenue were underwater, about shin deep in the street. But major streets throughout the beach town saw little water pooling through the morning.

In Long Beach, Bayshore Beach saw high tides again. The city closed off 54th Place along the beach area, and city crews were continuing to build sand berms.

On Naples Island, homeowners are dealing with flooding from water getting through cracks in the seawall along the canal. Along the Rivo Alto Canal, several had placed portable sump pumps to help get water back into the canal and Long Beach Fire Department also had crews out.

“Today was the worst,” said longtime resident Lynn Kirk, who was walking her dog, Noodles, as water was ankle-deep in front of their home.

With her rain boots on, lifelong Naples resident Michelle Shea was checking on her neighbors and making sure water didn’t enter her home, which was built by her grandfather in 1954, she said.

“We’ve been able to keep it under control as much as possible, but as you can see, it can get a little out of control,” Shea said. “We’re not as concerned with these tides; it’s more like a sign of what’s to come in November and December with the predictions.”

Shea said that she has gone out every day to measure the seawall to see how high the water is getting and keeping track of the tide numbers coming from NOAA.

“It’s definitely scary,” she said. “My grandpa built my house. I’ve had generations of my family living in the house, so it’s sad to see this because in my lifetime I’ve never seen anything like this. Our community has never experienced something like this.”

Shea also pointed out the cracks in the seawall, which were letting water onto the sidewalk like tiny waterfalls.

“We’ve been trying to get the city’s attention on it for years,” she said. “Hopefully this gets someone’s attention, and at least we can get some kind of temporary fix until they can get the newer seawall put in.”

Russ Boudreau, another Long Beach native, stopped his bike to look at the high tide causing some flooding at Bayshore Beach. He’s seen extreme tides over the year, but nothing like this.

“It’s something that we could expect,” he said about conditions along the coast. “This could be just an idea of what the future may look like.”

With the winter season approaching, residents will have to prepare for the potentially even higher king tides predicted over the holidays, Boudreau said.

“I think there’s a lot of challenges ahead,” he said, “but I will say one thing, I think the city is doing the right thing by dredging the sand and putting the sand on the beach at the Peninsula. I think they’re doing what they can.”

About a mile away, the Marine Stadium area also saw flooding, with water covering sidewalks, parking lots, and getting close to residential homes.

The International Boardwalk at the Redondo Beach Pier saw significant flooding from high tides on Tuesday morning. Sandbags were placed along the lower boardwalk of the pier on Monday, according to business owners on social media, but that did not stop water from flooding the area on Tuesday.

Business owners had also placed sandbags along their entrances to prevent flooding, and some remained open despite the conditions, including Project Barley Taps and Grill.

Water had also begun filling up streets and encroaching on driveways in neighborhoods around Huntington Harbor Tuesday morning as the tide peaked. Cars waded through water at the intersection of Humboldt Drive and Leonard Lane, while one woman attempted to cross on a kayak.

Connie McWhinney, 58, was walking barefoot with her pit bull around flooded sections of Humboldt and Mistral drives in the harbor.

“I’ve lived here since I was three and have never seen anything like this,” she said.

Water was knee-high at Pacific Coast Highway and 11th Street. Streets on Admiralty Island in Huntington Harbor had also flooded.

Many homes and family-owned businesses on Pacific Coast Highway were affected by the flooding. At J King Neptunes, a neighborhood bar and restaurant in Sunset Beach, the parking lot was covered in ankle-deep water.

Owner Sal Alvarez said water had seeped into the restaurant as well, though nothing appeared to be damaged. Alvarez said he had fortified the front door and wall with two dozen sandbags, which he said helped prevent more water from flooding in.

Despite experiencing the worst flooding in the 25 years his family has owned the business, Alvarez said he still plans to open the restaurant at 3 p.m.

The weather, so far, has not discouraged any regulars from frequenting the establishment, he said. “The locals here are very loyal.”

It’s like trying to figure out a puzzle

Where are the vulnerable, low-lying areas where water might spill over from the harbors and into the streets? How can crews keep the high tides from damaging homes, cars and roadways when the ocean levels rise?

Following flooding that overtook some streets Monday morning in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Long Beach, neighbors and city workers had to work against the clock the last 24 hours to shore up barriers to try and avoid a repeat soaking Tuesday.

An all-time record was measured in San Pedro on Monday at 8.02 feet in the morning, breaking the previous record of 7.93 feet set Jan. 10, 2005.

“Every inch makes a difference, in terms of high tide,” Newport Beach Utilities Director Mark Vukojevic said Monday afternoon as some streets, businesses and homes continued to dry out. “Now, we’re working on a few more puzzle pieces where we have low-lying areas.”

Water levels have been measuring about 20 inches, nearly 2 feet, higher than what tidal forecasts expected, pushing water over seawalls and into streets.

“That’s what’s causing overtopping and flooding risk. We call it the overage. It’s much higher than originally predicted,” Vukojevic said. “In years past, we’ve seen tides come in about a foot higher than predicted. This is very abnormal.”

The string of high tides this week should have been “a big, nothing burger of an event.” But whatever is happening to raise water levels has been requiring all hands on deck, he said.

Newport Beach resident Tristen Fix said she could see the areas where additional sandbags placed helped hold back water and the places where enough wasn’t done.

A neighbor who had prepared with sandbags layered three deep to bolster their seawall fared better than others, she noted. Her home had its foundation built up higher when she moved in and did renovations, along with a taller concrete seawall, per guidance from the California Coastal Commission, she said, and stayed dry this week.

The city can not go onto private properties and start sandbagging and building up their walls, Vukojevic noted, though they can respond to an emergency flood if needed.

“It finds weak links,” Vukojevic said of the flood waters. “In some cases, we have homeowners who aren’t here, aren’t active, and we really need them to do their part. Hopefully people have family, friends, people from church, a gardener, a contractor.”

“Even though we had our problem areas, I think it’s better than expected,” Vukojevic said Tuesday early afternoon while checking out the Cannery area that flooded, seawater coming up from a wooden walkway and into the streets. “I think preparation paid off.”

Following Monday’s flooding, crews kept busy through the night and morning putting sandbags along low-lying areas, informing homeowners of risk and using extra pumps where flooding was bad the day before, he said.

The Newport Fun Zone stayed dry with the extra sandbags in place, and an area near the Newport Harbor Yacht Club wasn’t flooding as bad as the day before.

Resident Emmett Comrecode had stacked some sandbags on a wall between the harbor and his home, he said, but it wasn’t enough to hold back the sea.

A walk through his property showed soaked trash bags next to his home, a soggy carpet and a layer of seawater throughout the ground floor. Comrecode, who said he has flood insurance, has lived in Newport since 1969 and in the flooded property since 1996, and said he has never seen it flood over the way it did Tuesday.

“You can’t stop the tides,” he said. “My pump couldn’t keep up because it got so high.”

At the Newport Pier, a front loader was moving sand as the ocean water crept up the beach, trying to build up sand berms as walls to hold back the sea. Thankfully, little swell today is helping keep the ocean calm, so heavy surf is not adding to the problems.

San Clemente City Manager Andy Hall said there were no issues along the city’s coastline on Tuesday morning but added that crews are monitoring a couple of locations.

“The coastal erosion we are experiencing is not unanticipated, but things can change very quickly,” he said.

In Laguna Beach, Marine Safety Chief Kai Bond said conditions were calm Tuesday morning and that he didn’t expect flooding on Coast Highway near Main Beach or near Aliso Beach in South Laguna.

“There is very little surf,” Bond said of the conditions expected to bring the most dangerous tide levels on Tuesday. “There is some water near the berm (Main Beach) but mellow overall.”

Dana Point Mayor John Gabbard went down to Beach Road on Tuesday to see whether there was any further threat to homes or structures in the oceanfront community that already has seen several homes red-tagged during recent months.

He said the waterline along the recently installed retaining wall was hitting about three feet from the top, and some water was percolating through.

“There was no massive wave energy and no massive surf action that flooded anything out,” he said. “None of the houses are in any more danger than they were otherwise. If they can get through tomorrow without any surf, then I think they’ll be OK.”

He also checked Baby Beach in Dana Point Harbor and found the entire beach area flooded to the sea wall. He said that was typical of what happens during extremely high tides.

His worry now is what will happen with the upcoming rain event predicted for Halloween.

“Nobody can tell yet, he said, referring to the National Weather Service, “where the track is coming through. If we get another atmospheric river between now and Thanksgiving, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Staff writer Erika Ritchie contributed to this report.