Enduring another day of flooded streets and neighborhoods, Long Beach and other coastal communities posted more record high tides on Wednesday, Oct. 28, spurring residents to wonder if rising waters are the daily norm amid forecasts of an unusually wet season.
Local officials said they are working 24-7 to respond to ongoing El Niño and storm-related impacts — filling sand bags, building sand berms and running pump systems around the clock — which have brought highest-ever tide levels and deepening erosion fears for weeks.
“It’s just something that we’ve come to accept that this is the new normal around here,” said Long Beach business owner Matt Chernus. “It’s probably going to be something to deal with for the long term … we’re checking the tides every day and if we see anything that’s over 6.5 or 7 feet, we know it’s going to hit the restaurant and we need to prepare.
Wednesday would be the first day Chernus’ restaurant, Grill ‘Em All would be open since high tides flooded part of the dining room on Monday, he said.
The extra water has caused big trouble in low-lying coastal areas the past few days, where harbor water has spilled over low seawalls and flooded into streets, homes and businesses in Los Angeles and Orange County coastal communities.
But conditions improved a bit on Wednesday. In Long Beach, flooding returned to Peninsula, Naples Island, Alamitos Bay, Belmont Shore and Colorado Lagoon. Minor flooding was reported in Redondo Beach on, easing up from the rising waters that swamped the city’s pier on Tuesday.
A tide gauge in San Pedro reached 8.02 feet Monday, topping the previous record of 7.93 feet set Jan. 10, 2005. Swamped streets continued in some areas of Malibu. And Orange County cities, socked by record tides for days now, reported waters inching lower.
Amid the rising waters, Chernus’ business stayed open, though. After weekend flooding, the city’s Marine Bureau team built sand berms in front of the eatery, which sits at the waterfront of Bayshore Beach, which prevented any flooding the past two days, Chernus said.
“But again, just super excited that the city came through with these sand berms,” he said. “They’ve been adding to them every day, so as long as we got them on our side helping us mediate the situation, I think we’ll be fine in the future…we’re just happy to be open today.”
High tide was observed at 8.08 feet Wednesday between 10:20 a.m. and 11:20 a.m. in Long Beach — down a bit from Tuesday — and is expected to drop two-tenths of a foot Thursday.
Los Angeles County beaches are also under a coastal flood advisory through 2 p.m. Friday. In Los Angeles County, tides are forecast to reach 7.5 to 8 feet late Thursday morning, about 1 to 1.5 feet above predictions, and remain near 7.5 feet around noon Friday.
“Low lying property including homes, businesses, and some critical infrastructure will be inundated,” the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters expect minor to moderate flooding of low-lying coastal areas, including beach parking lots, bike paths and harbor walkways, as well as moderate to significant beach erosion. Isolated damage to structures is possible in the most vulnerable areas.
The high tides come as forecasters track a storm system.
“This will set the stage for a wet Halloween weekend,” the NWS said.
“Given the current trajectory of the low, the highest rain chances and totals through Saturday evening look to occur across LA County,” the weather agency added.
Rain could make this Los Angeles’ first wet Halloween since 2014, according to weather records. The heaviest rain is currently expected late Saturday into Sunday, though forecasters say the timing and amounts remain uncertain.
In Los Angeles County, the NWS forecast calls for 0.5 to 1.5 inches of rain through Sunday in most areas, with local amounts up to 2.5 inches on south-facing mountain slopes.
Long Beach has not only been responding to localized flooding in the Bayshore Beach area, but also on Naples Island, and areas around the Marine Stadium and Colorado Lagoon. Portable pumps continue to be used as needed to address and mitigate street flooding and ponding, city officials said. Crews also continue to inspect, maintain and clear drainage infrastructure.
The city has also continued its recovery and rebuilding of its historic boardwalk and Peninsula community in the wake of the powerful surf triggered by the Hurricane Marine remnant, Tropical Storm Rachel and treacherous ongoing El Niño conditions.
Long Beach’s Peninsula community continues to brace for peak tides in the forecast, fearing further damage to a row of already-devastated homes, where seven structures comprising 12 residences have been red-tagged and another two structures are yellow-tagged. No additional buildings have been tagged at this time, according to city officials.
Peninsula residents on 64th, 65th and 66th places south of Ocean Boulevard, as well as homes in the 6200, 6300, 6600 and 6700 block of Seaside Walk suffered from the previous storms and high tides.
Repairs to the boardwalk and bulkhead continue during low tide and will continue until repairs are complete and depending on safety conditions in the work zone, city officials said. This week, crews are conducting cap repair, excavation and installation of vertical bulkhead boards, cap plates and additional sandwich boards between 66th and 67th Place. Over 40,000 linear feet of lumber has been ordered for repairs thus far.
Due to extensive damage from recent storms, the project is estimated to cost approximately $3.6 million, officials said. Funds being used are from the Tidelands Emergency Reserve – general fund and emergency reserves will not be used.
The Peninsula is also seen work done through the Alamitos Bay Dredging Project, which began last week and has already added visible beachfront to the area, with over 140,000 cubic yards of sand pushed so far, according to the city. This 24-hour work will continue to move from the most eastern part of the Peninsula towards the west, eventually addressing the highly impacted areas of the Peninsula.
While this effort will achieve a much-desired result, it will not stop waves from pulling sand off the Peninsula, city officials said, so daily back passing will continue until longer-term solutions are identified, permitted and implemented. Coastal engineers are reviewing those options, and any solution will require California Coastal Commission approval.
Other coastal cities are also preparing for impacts of the Super El Niño this winter season.
In Redondo Beach, the Public Works and Fire Departments are working together to prepare residents for future storms by sharing information, such as signing up for alerts; clearing out drains; getting flood insurance if needed; and staying clear of high surf. The city’s website also provides additional information about storm preparation.
Redondo Beach also experienced minor flooding around all three of the marina basins in King Harbor, according to Public Works Director Andrew Winje, including the International Boardwalk area where there are retail establishments.
“We are doing our best to protect the storefronts with sandbags and working to find additional solutions for predicted higher tides coming in November and December,” Winje said in a written statement on Wednesday. “Besides wet feet, we have no reports of significant damage.”
The beach city is experiencing water levels from 1 to 2 feet above published tide charts during this week’s morning high tides, Winje added. The pier, which is several feet higher than the basin seawalls, has not experienced any flooding or damage.
Other beachfront communities are also experiencing similar flooding and urgency to prepare across Los Angeles and Orange Counties.
After experiencing severe flooding this week, streets across Newport and Surfside in Huntington Beach saw less water on Wednesday morning, as tide levels are inching lower for the rest of the week from the record highs recorded a day earlier.
In Orange County, less saltwater flowed into streets across Newport and Surfside in Huntington Beach on Wednesday, as tide levels inched lower.
Tide charts were showing predicted tides at 6 feet, 4 inches, but measurements from Newport Harbor were showing levels at 8 feet, 3 inches, the added height pushing water over low seawalls in recent days.
Newport utility director Mark Vukojevic said the tides were measured at 8 feet, 3 inches in the Newport Harbor, just one inch lower than a day earlier, a record high for the beach town since it started keeping records in the 20s.
There was some ponding, he said, but no flooding that he was aware of, he said.
Resident Bill Sharp, who has been tracking the flooding throughout town for the past few days, was checking out the trouble spots like Newport Harbor Yacht Club and the Fun Zone, and an area by the Cannery that flooded a day earlier, saying those areas didn’t have flooding Wednesday morning.
“It seems like the city has generally plugged up most of the leaks,” Sharp said, noting there was some pooling of water where the ramp lets people onto the Balboa Ferry, which was only transporting people, not cars, for the morning hours. “It seems like the worst has passed.”
Balboa Ferry operator Seymour Beek, whose family has owned the service since 1919, said that while cars had to use an alternate route instead of crossing the harbor because they had sandbags put down, pedestrians and bicyclists were still able to use the service that transports passengers from Balboa Island to Balboa Peninsula.
“There was some inconvenience, a nuisance and a loss of revenue,” he said. “And did I mention the helicopters? More annoying than the flooding was the news helicopters.”
Staff writer Laylan Connelly and City News Service contributed to this report