A high tide preview for some OC residents on Sunday

Briar Ayloush stood on her flooded street in the Huntington Harbour area on Sunday morning and fretted. Will the even more dramatic high tides expected on Monday knock her dock off the pylons? Could it just float away?

Her three young children, however, were quite happy to see their sidewalk become a pond. They frolicked in the water.

A 5-day coastal flood advisory went into effect in Southern California on Sunday morning, but few residents received a preview of what’s expected from the unusually high tides in the forecast, including some “near if not record-breaking” ones, according to the National Weather Service.

The Balboa and Long Beach peninsulas, battered in previous weeks by monster waves, seemed void of deluges on Sunday, or any residents scurrying to get ready for more. The waves didn’t look that high in other places, either, including Laguna Beach or San Pedro. Yet.

Brad Ross lives near Ayloush in the Huntington Harbour area. He removed his flip-flops to wade through the several inches of flooding on Pacific Coast Highway on Sunday.

“This is a high one,” he said. “This is the highest it’s ever been.”

Ross, who lives on the second floor of a triplex, was concerned the salt water could damage his car, so he moved it to a drier spot.

See also: Salt water can seriously damage your car. Here’s what AAA says to do

“This is a good test,” he said, “for people to see what they need to do to prepare for more flooding.”

In Seal Beach, Yogi, a chocolate labradoodle, knew something was off. The dog barked at the water filling Seal Beach Boulevard near Pacific Coast Highway as he jumped around in his front yard.

His owner, Bruce Baral, said flooding routinely happens across their street near a drainage canal to the ocean, but he has never seen it like this, he said, with the flood crossing several traffic lanes to his side.

On Balboa Island, sandbags lined the top of the well along the pedestrian path on Bay Front. Large puddles of water covered portions of the walkway along the Grand Canal, but visitors and residents were undaunted, enjoying the warm weather like on any normal Sunday. No obvious signs of any active preparations were noticeable.

A similar vibe was apparent on the Balboa Peninsula, where beachgoers went on with their day as usual, walking around the large berms built to protect nearby streets.

Along the Peninsula in Long Beach, medium-sized waves smacked the previously damaged homes on Seaside Way. Seven homes have been red-tagged and two yellow-tagged since Tropical Storm Rachel, according to city officials.

City crews were continuing to build sand berms on Sunday morning, as well as  working on the Alamitos Bay Dredging Project. The $11.4 million project started Oct. 20.

The coastal flood advisory was set to run until 1 p.m. Thursday, with tides between 7.5 and 8 feet foreseen, according to the National Weather Service.

Forecasters said the tides, perhaps on Tuesday, could smash the record of 7.93 feet set in San Pedro on Jan. 10, 2005. Records go back to 1924.

The weather is expected to be mild in the next several days, with daytime highs in the mid- to upper 70s. But later in the week, there will be a growing potential for a significant storm system to develop.

“The pattern will start to change around Thursday, with onshore flow returning, temperatures dropping, and low pressure forming over the West Coast. This will open the storm window over California, with a growing chance of a significant storm impacting the local area as early as Friday but more so for the weekend,” the NWS said.

Forecasters say there is a 90% chance of rain between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2, with Halloween activities likely to be affected.

Long Beach, OC coastal towns eke out a day of bliss before ‘all-time’ high tides – and likely flooding – return