Massive swells flood Newport and Laguna Beach streets, trigger emergency responses

Cars traveling in the area of 19th Street and West Balboa Boulevard in Newport Beach Friday morning encounter flooded streets as ocean swells inundated low-lying coastal areas in Orange County. (Coleen Brennan) Newport Beach declared a state of emergency after high surf and elevated ocean water levels resulted in overnight flooding of streets along the Balboa Peninsula, where vehicles could be seen slogging through high water Friday morning.

The garage of an oceanfront home on Seashore Drive was flooded Friday morning in Newport Beach. (Susan Hoffman) Newport Beach City Manager Seimone Jurjis signed the declaration of local emergency to seek additional resources to address the city’s response to the incident, according to a news release issued by City Hall on Friday.

Sandbags fortify an oceanfront house on Seashore Drive after the patio experienced high-tide flooding in Newport Beach. (Susan Hoffman) City officials also encouraged residents to sign up for alerts via Newport Notified at NBPD.org/NewportNotified. They were also advised to clear debris from private gutters and drainage areas, to use sandbags to protect their properties, and to move vehicles away from areas that may experience flooding.

Newport Beach lifeguards and city crews filled sandbags for oceanfront residents following Friday’s high-tide flooding on the Balboa Peninsula. (Susan Hoffman) Six city of Newport Beach crews had begun work to rebuild beach berms, with others opening tide valves and operating pumping systems to drain flooded streets.

In Laguna Beach, authorities shut down traffic near the intersection of Broadway Street and South Coast Highway, as high tides pushed waves into a channel and flooded the low-lying area.

City officials also made the decision to close the Aliso Beach parking lot after the waves proved powerful enough to pick up cement benches and trash cans and move them into the parking area. The South Laguna beach has also been closed off to pedestrians, City Manager Dave Kiff said.

High surf and wave activity is taken in by beach-goers, who watch as a back-ho digs out a berm at the boardwalk at Main Beach in Laguna Beach on Friday. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer) Pictures posted on the Laguna Beach police department’s social media showed water flowing beneath the boardwalk at Main Beach, where public works crews were also using heavy equipment to move sand.

“Everybody’s out there trying to make sure we’re ready for the next high tide,” said Kiff, who said fire, marine safety, police and public works personnel were all responding to the flooding incident. “The wave swell is fairly consistent. It’s actually larger than we expected … We got to watch the high-tide periods, especially.”

Tropical storm-induced waves and high tides flood Main Beach Park, where a back-ho digs out a berm at the boardwalk in Laguna Beach on Friday. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer) The boardwalk was not an immediate concern on Friday morning, Kiff said, but high surf and wave activity had previously taken a toll on public infrastructure.

City officials closed the Aliso Beach parking lot due to coastal erosion just ahead of Labor Day. Kiff had said the damage then could be estimated at about $500,00.

Then the city declared a local state of emergency on Sept. 10, citing coastal erosion and sand loss due to a south swell event brought on by Hurricane Marie.

Waves and high tides flood Main Beach Park at Broadway near the boardwalk at Main Beach Park in downtown Laguna Beach on Friday. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer) On Sept. 29, the city reported a rock slide at the Agate Street beach access stairway.

“This could be the first of 16 days of [these ocean conditions], so there is potential for more damage,” Kiff added.

Local authorities attributed the high surf and wave activity, in part, to Tropical Storm Rachel.

Laguna Beach lifeguard towers were signaling red-flag conditions, Bond added, with the city beaches seeing 5-to-7-foot waves.

Authorities advise the public to know their abilities before entering the water, to swim in front of an open lifeguard tower, and to ask a lifeguard about present open conditions. The rocky areas along the coastline are also closed, Bond said.

Beach-goers watch a back-ho dig out a berm at the boardwalk at Main Beach Park in downtown Laguna Beach on Friday. (Don Leach / Staff Photographer) “I would say what’s a little bit different about this swell event is, there’s big surf, but it’s a longer duration,” Bond explained. “Right now, within confidence, we can kind of say that for the next 14 to 16 days, there’s going to be significant, consistent surf, and we’re just trying to prepare for that. Hopefully, it’s paired with some weather that’s not typical beach weather to keep people away.

“In my opinion, the beach is an attraction regardless of what the weather is, what the warnings are, so people need to be aware and stay off of it.”

Huntington Beach activated its emergency operations center, city officials said in a public advisory on social media on Friday afternoon. The city communication added crews were being staged throughout the city in areas most likely to flood during the weekend’s high-tide periods.

Sand and sandbags are available to residents of Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach at the corporate yard, 17371 Gothard St., the Edison Community Center at 21377 Magnolia St. and the Warner Fire Station, 3831 Warner Ave.

The National Weather Service issued a coastal flood advisory for Orange County beaches that will remain in effect until 2 p.m. on Tuesday. There is rain in the forecast over the weekend.

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Andrew Turner is a sports reporter for the Daily Pilot. Before joining the Pilot in October 2016, he covered prep sports as a freelancer for the Orange County Register for four years. His work also has been used by the Associated Press and California Rubber Hockey Magazine. While attending Long Beach State, he wrote for the college newspaper, the Daily 49er. He graduated with bachelor’s degrees in journalism and history. (714) 966-4611