Newport Beach sees some flooding, PCH northbound in Huntington Beach closed during high tide

Important takeaways:

• Northbound lanes of PCH were closed Monday morning between the Bolsa Chica State Beach entrance and Warner Avenue.
• The Balboa Ferry will not be transporting cars from 8 a.m. until noon in coming days.
• The astronomical tides for Southern California will be highest this week on Tuesday at 9:52 a.m. Newport Beach’s gauges measured 8.3 feet, nearly 2 feet higher than the predicted high tide, during peak high tide at 9:15 a.m. Monday.

Longtime Newport Beach resident Bill Sharp cringed as he watched a dark gray electric car slowly drive through a foot of salt water in a flooded Newport Beach street.

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A few months ago, the same stretch of low-lying coast flooded, and a similar car caught fire due to the saltwater intrusion.

“I would not be driving an electric car here,” Sharp said, looking over the flooding at the base of a bridge going to Newport Island near 38th Street. “Super bad idea.”

Water also spilled over the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve Monday morning, with Caltrans closing both northbound lanes of Pacific Coast Highway for a few hours between the Bolsa Chica State Beach entrance and Warner Avenue until water levels receded. PCH will be closed from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday from Warner Avenue to Anderson Street, city officials announed Monday afternoon.

The exceptionally high tides set an all-time record at San Pedro on Monday, raising concerns about additional coastal flooding and property damage along the Southern California coastlines as even higher tides are expected Tuesday.

Flooding isn’t new to low-lying areas across Southern California. Long-time residents who live in the Surfside-Sunset area and Newport Beach’s Balboa Island and Peninsula neighborhoods have gone through extreme high tides before, with harbor water spilling over low seawalls, city crews on hand to pump it back where it belongs and sometimes homes and businesses flooding during king tides.

But this year, something is different.

A preliminary reading at the San Pedro tide gauge reached 8.02 feet Monday morning, breaking the previous record of 7.93 feet set Jan. 10, 2005, according to the National Weather Service.

Newport Beach’s gauges at the peak high tide Monday morning measured 8.3 feet – nearly 2 feet higher than the astronomically predicted high tide of 6.6 feet. Harbor water filled streets – and got into several businesses – in the Fun Zone area, with owners scrambling to pump and sweep out the mess.

Experts say the Kelvin wave that crept in from the equator is gone, for now, but other factors such as warm-water expansion, recent rains, even currents can push water levels higher than expected as is happening now.

The astronomical tides for Southern California will be highest this week on Tuesday at 9:52 a.m., under normal circumstances at about 6.8 feet.

The highest tides of each day will slowly start to swing downward for the rest of the week, at about 6.75 feet at 10:32 a.m. on Wednesday, then down to 6.49 feet at 11:16 a.m. on Thursday.

Those numbers, however, do not account for a foot to two feet of higher water levels being measured along the coast.

While Long Beach’s Peninsula has seen significant impacts and damage after three back-to-back storms in the past two months, there was not much flooding from high tides on Monday morning. City crews continue building sand berms and working on the Alamitos Bay Dredging Project to protect city infrastructure and homes along the Peninsula.

Flooding from high tides on Monday morning could be seen in other low-lying areas of the city. Bayshore Beach and the Naples neighborhood saw flooding; water rose above barriers and into the street. By early afternoon, the city’s Marine Bureau had created sand berms along the entrance of Bayshore Beach to prevent and reduce flooding.

About a mile away, Long Beach’s Marine Stadium also saw flooding onto sidewalks and into its parking lot during the high tide.

Newport Beach spokesperson Georgia Rios said flood-prone areas near the Balboa Fun Zone area and down near River Avenue saw surface flooding, and while some businesses flooded, she was unsure of how many had water entering their buildings.

Through the weekend, the city put up door-to-door hangers warning of the tides and encouraging residents to get free sandbags to put up on seawalls.

In total, an estimated 25,000 sandbags were handed out.

“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Rios said. “Residents did their job to get sandbags and protect their homes.”

The city has suspended all parking enforcement until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, so people can move their cars to safety at city parking lots.

The Balboa Ferry, which has been making the trek from the Balboa Island to the Balboa Peninsula for more than 100 years, will not be transporting cars from 8 a.m. until noon in coming days, when tides are expected to be slightly higher in coming days.

“Pedestrian passengers are still welcome, but bring your boots!” a post on social media said.

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On the beach side, city crews were busy last week building berms and placing thousands of sandbags, in case waves pushed the water to the homes like it did earlier this month. The current swell was small enough, however, that waves were not an issue.

But Rios pleaded with residents to protect their homes along the harbor side.

“Once it lapses over one seawall, it pours over into the streets,” she said. “(Tuesday) is going to be worse, we want to make sure it’s as safe as possible to make sure we don’t have water in our streets.”

Residents, Sharp said, were coping, some wading around in the shin-deep water to get a look.

Most had been prepared and put sandbags on top of seawalls. Others did not, he noted.

“There are a handful of houses where the owner has a really low seawall and they did not sandbag like the others did,” Sharp said. “The water is flowing through their yards, into the street and into neighbors’ yards. The other neighbors were not really stoked on it.”

Newport Beach lifeguards were helping fill and stack sandbags Monday on the two islands in Newport Harbor and the area near the Fun Zone on the Balboa Peninsula, said Fire Chief Jeff Boyles, who also oversees Marine Safety division.

“We have trucks and lifeguards patrolling,” he said. “It’s almost November, so we don’t have the beach crowd or swimmers and surfers we’d have if this were August or September. We have the resources to pull them off the sand and put them on the streets.”

The flooding didn’t warrant any road closures, officials said.

Boyles said that if the sandbag work holds, he’s optimistic for Tuesday.

“If we build a higher elevation along the seawalls and private property walls, hopefully we can just contain it,” he said. “Trying to predict where it will surge is difficult, but obviously we’re protecting our low-lying areas; that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

Sharp, who has seen several floods in the area, knows that as the tides go down and the city can open valves – set around the area when it was built to release water when tides drop – the area will dry out.

But he also knows the tides are inching even higher tomorrow and the next day. And, there is another round of king tides expected Thanksgiving week and over Christmas. If there’s a swell or rain during those same time periods, there could be big trouble.

“I don’t think there’s enough sandbags in the state of California to completely stop this,” Sharp said.

Two areas in north Orange County experienced flooding, Huntington Beach and Sunset Beach, according to Christianne Smith, spokesperson at Caltrans.

In addition to PCH being closed on the northbound lanes Monday morning, in Sunset Beach high water levels in the harbor caused water to overtop and seep through walls on private and city-owned properties, with some water reaching the southbound lanes of PCH.

“There is no significant flooding at this time, and the southbound lanes remain passable,” Smith said in an email.

Flooding in Huntington Beach was much milder compared to Newport Beach, but stretches of PCH and nearby residential areas were affected by surging tides Monday morning. Sidewalks were submerged in water.

Many neighborhoods in Huntington Harbor, including those near Davenport Beach, experienced minor to moderate flooding. Houses near the harbor are fortified by walls of sandbags.

“I’ve lived here for a long time and have never seen this,” said Lili Luciano, whose driveway on Baruna Lane was partially under water. The city installed sandbags in front of her house and several others, but Luciano expressed doubt that they’ll be of much use with the tide expected to rise Tuesday.

Caltrans maintenance crews installed bladders last week to help manage water levels and worked throughout the weekend to release water during low tide in preparation for this week, Smith said. Crews will continue their efforts throughout the week.

Metrolink has suspension routes between the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo and Oceanside stations due to the forecasted high tides along the South Orange County coastline. The line connects north to Union Station in Los Angeles.

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City News Service contributed to this report.