Record-breaking tides pushed the Pacific Ocean into streets, homes and businesses along the California coast this week, damaging 114 buildings in Huntington Beach and forcing the closure of parts of Pacific Coast Highway.
Huntington Beach king tides matter beyond one city because the same surge set tide-gauge records from San Diego to the Bay Area, flooded both coasts, and arrived weeks before winter tides forecasters warn could run higher.
City officials in Huntington Beach said 114 homes and other structures were damaged by the flooding, and six homes were yellow-tagged, restricting access because of safety hazards. Sunset Beach and Huntington Harbour were among the hardest-hit neighbourhoods, and in one serious incident saltwater reached a lithium-ion battery and started a fire inside a building.
City Manager Travis Hopkins proclaimed a local emergency on October 26, and the city said it activated its Mobile Command Post and deployed emergency crews to areas expected to be hit.
Pacific Coast Highway was closed between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach, and again in the Sunset Beach area, where it was expected to reopen on Friday afternoon. Orange County Metrolink also suspended service on Monday between Laguna Niguel and Mission Viejo and Oceanside.
Residents described flooding far beyond the usual high-tide puddles. Stacey Frederick, who works at a coffee shop in Huntington Beach and has lived there for five years, said king tides are not new but this week was unusual. “It floods a little bit, but never to this point,” she said.
Lorraine Friedman, 75, who has lived in Sunset Beach for nearly three decades, said water washed over the three layers of sandbags she had stacked inside her garage. Her home had flooded only once before, about 20 years ago. “This is the second day I’ve been flooded — two days — and tomorrow I’ll get flooded again,” she said on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service said record high tides were set this week in Santa Barbara, San Pedro, San Diego and nearby La Jolla. In San Diego, the tide gauge recorded 8.52 feet above mean lower low water on Tuesday, October 27, the highest measurement in that station’s record.
Forecasters said the tides were driven by the gravitational pull and alignment of the Earth, moon and sun, beginning with this week’s full moon. Along the California coast, an ongoing super El Nino warmed the ocean and increased the volume of seawater, while pulses of warm water known as Kelvin waves lifted sea levels, said Roger Gass, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area forecast office in Monterey.
Northern California was hit as well. In Marin County, north of San Francisco, kayakers and paddle boarders moved through streets on Monday and Tuesday, and rescuers pulled several drivers from cars stranded in floodwater. The weather service said high tides there were peaking 1.9 feet above normal.
Florida’s Atlantic coast flooded at the same time. Most of the state’s Atlantic coast was under flood warnings through early Friday. Street flooding was reported in Charleston and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Virginia Key, a barrier island in Miami, saw its highest king tide and the third-highest water level since records began there three decades ago, said Chris Fisher, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Miami. “The only times we’ve seen higher was during hurricanes,” Fisher said.
Huntington Beach is not the first Orange County city to declare an emergency over coastal flooding this month. Newport Beach declared a local emergency on October 9 after large swells and unusually high tides sent seawater across the Balboa Peninsula.
What is confirmed is the scale of the damage in Huntington Beach, the local emergency declaration, and the record tide readings. What is not yet known is the full repair bill, which the city has not published. Coastal flood advisories around San Francisco, San Pablo and Monterey bays were extended through November 1, with officials warning late-November tides could run even higher, ahead of the official king tide windows of November 24 to 26, December 23 to 25, and January 21 to 22.
