Home Care In Laguna Beach, CA

Monster tides flooded Southern California’s coastline Tuesday, swamping waterfront neighborhoods and shutting down stretches of the Pacific Coast Highway.

The coastal chaos is expected to continue through Thursday, with forecasters warning that unusually high morning tides could bring more flooding to vulnerable beach communities.

In Orange County, flooding forced the closure of both directions of PCH between Warner Avenue and Seal Beach Boulevard Tuesday morning, according to Caltrans. Northbound lanes were also closed between Seapoint Street and Warner Avenue.

As water continued to spill onto the roadway even after the tide began to recede, PCH was ultimately shut down in both directions between Seal Beach and Huntington Beach.

Newport Beach was also bracing for the rising water, with officials activating pumps and building sand berms to protect vulnerable neighborhoods, particularly along the Balboa Peninsula.

The waterway beneath the Newport Boulevard Bridge was closed from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday to prevent boat wakes from sending more water into nearby properties during the morning high tide.

The tide reached a record-setting 8.4 feet at 10 a.m., forecasters said.

Boaters throughout Newport Harbor were urged to slow down and exercise caution near low-lying waterfront areas. The waterway beneath the bridge is scheduled to close again Wednesday from 9 to 11 a.m.

The flooding comes as tides along the Southland coast continue to approach historic levels.

A tide gauge in San Pedro reached 8.02 feet Monday, breaking the previous record of 7.93 feet set Jan. 10, 2005, according to the National Weather Service. Records at the gauge date back to November 1923.

Tides could remain near record levels through Wednesday, forecasters warned.

Newport Beach officials have also suspended parking enforcement through Wednesday evening to give residents time to move vehicles out of flood-prone areas.

A coastal flood warning remained in effect for the Orange County coastline through 1 p.m. Thursday, while a coastal flood advisory covered the Los Angeles County coastline through the same time.

Tides were running about 1 to 1.7 feet above astronomical predictions in Orange County and roughly 1 to 1.5 feet above predictions along the LA County coast.

More significant flooding and damage are possible in areas where little or no sandy beach remains, or where previous high tides have already caused problems, the NWS warned.

The rising water has also disrupted rail service. Metrolink’s Orange County Line was suspended Monday between Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo and Oceanside, with trains originating and terminating at Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo through Friday.

Away from the soggy coastline, Los Angeles and Orange counties can expect dry, mild weather through at least Friday, with temperatures gradually cooling and clouds increasing.

Rain could arrive this weekend, although forecasters say the potential storm system has been trending weaker in computer models.

“Still looks like a high chance of rain with the most likely period being Saturday into Sunday but at this time amounts seem to be under an inch,” according to the weather agency.

The chance of a brief shower Friday stands at 15% to 25%, with Saturday night offering the best chance of rain. Showers could taper off by Sunday afternoon, though confidence in the timing remains moderate.

Current projections call for roughly one-third to one-half inch of rain across most areas, with the eastern San Gabriel Mountains potentially receiving around an inch.

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Dozens of spectators gathered to watch the unusually high surf pound the Laguna Beach shoreline Sunday afternoon.

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — High tides and powerful surf continued to pound the Laguna Beach coast Sunday morning.

City crews were hard at work through the weekend reinforcing a steep, roughly eight-foot berm along vulnerable portions of Main Beach.

Spectators clustered along Main Beach Boardwalk to catch a viewing of the powerful wave event during high tide Sunday morning with thermoses and cameras in hand.

Residents captured photos of the waves, which relentlessly pounded the shoreline all through the morning, with some even snapping selfies or posing for pictures against the waves.

Though the mood was light, with onlookers chatting amongst themselves about the water conditions or their Sunday mornings thus far, no one dared try to make their way past the shoreline — and Laguna Beach lifeguards watched the shoreline closely to ensure it remained so.

From Main Beach, residents could spot where the savage tides pounded million-dollar homes clustered along the Laguna Beach coast.

By 10 a.m. the waves — coming in sets of threes — began lapping up the edge of the boardwalk and washing over the feet of several spectators. Thirty minutes later, a city worker was seen behind the wheel of a sand-digger working to ensure that the berm remained in place while spectators watched.

According to the city, the powerful tides Sunday impacted Aliso Beach to the point of closure.

"High surf and tides are expected to continue over the next 10 to 14 days," the city said in a statement. "For public safety, the Aliso Beach parking lot will close intermittently during this swell event."

The extra preparation comes after flooding impacted the City of Laguna Beach last week, triggering closures on Coast Highway and other Laguna Beach main streets and eating away at the city's pristine coastline.

"Laguna Beach —along with other coastal communities— is experiencing an unusually large and long-lasting ocean swell event," the city said in a statement. "Combined with high tides, the likely impacts of a Kelvin wave, and the remnants of Hurricane Rachel, the event is causing repeated flooding at Aliso Beach, Main Beach, and Broadway & Coast Highway. We expect these conditions to continue for about the next two weeks, mostly during morning and evening high tides."

Caltrans has secured millions in emergency funding to fix a large crack that has developed in the slope below Pacific Coast Highway near Laguna Beach.

The crack near the Moro Beach section of Crystal Cove is estimated to be 360 feet long and 2 feet wide. It was first spotted earlier this month after high tides and waves smashed into the slope.

As of Tuesday, Caltrans had secured $4 million in emergency funding to fix the crack and was expecting approval from California State Parks and the California Coastal Commission to close both southbound lanes of PCH and convert one of the northbound lanes into a southbound lane, according to Caltrans spokesperson Christianne Smith.

Currently, the right lane of southbound PCH — closest to the slope — is closed from Reef Point Drive to Irvine Cove Drive, according to Smith.

Caltrans isn’t concerned about any other areas along Pacific Coast Highway, Smith said.

“We’re primarily focused on the Moro Beach slope near Crystal Cove, where the crack formed,” she added.

Caltrans already has installed plastic sheeting over the crack to stop rainwater from entering the slope ahead of expected storms, according to a Caltrans statement. The second phase started Tuesday as crews began reinforcing the slope by buttressing it at the base and armoring it with rocks to hinder slope movement and erosion.

The third phrase involves working with California State Parks to “develop a long-term stabilization approach to ensure roadway protection by drawing on geotechnical data and lessons learned from similar emergency repairs,” according to the Caltrans statement.

A timeline for completion of the entire project has not been disclosed. It’s also unclear whether the project will require more funding.

Southern California is facing coastal erosion driven by a “super” El Niño winter season, resulting in collapsed sea bluffs, beaches that have been stripped away, and damaged homes and infrastructure along the coast. The El Niño has also affected transit, temporarily shutting down the Amtrak Pacific Surfliner along the San Clemente coastline last month during high tides.

Caltrans has advised that motorists follow signs and traffic controls, as well as allow for extra travel time through the affected area. Motorists should check the Caltrans QuickMap for the most recent traffic conditions.

Laguna Beach City Manager Dave Kiff and Laguna Beach Unified School District Supt. Don Austin shared in a social media update that the PCH lane closure is near El Morro Elementary but that school buses are operating as usual.

“Obviously we have families not only at El Morro but others who depend on the buses to get to their sites who have concerns about what they’ve seen on the news,” Austin said in the update. “At this time, we’re still maintaining our transportation as normal. I can tell you for more than a week now we’ve been speaking internally, coming up with plans and thoughts about what would happen if we needed to reroute either immediately or with a couple days’ notice.”

The city of Laguna Beach on Thursday proclaimed a local emergency due to ongoing coastal erosion and sand movement related to former Hurricane Marie.

The decision comes after days of swell and shortly after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that there's a greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño this year.

"The proclamation allows the City to move immediately on emergency shoreline protection, sand placement, debris removal, assessments and repairs without the delay of ordinary contracting procedures," the city said in a news release.

Aliso Beach appeared to be taking the hardest hit. Part of the parking lot was already closed last week, but the beach was completely gone and shut down to the public as of Thursday. Crews were evaluating nearby infrastructure and inspecting the homes along that stretch of the coast.

Erosion has also exposed rocks at other beaches, like Shaw Cove, leaving very little sand behind. The city says its coves are the most impacted. While they are all back open, some had to shut down for several days.

Six oceanfront homes on Ocean Way and Lagunita Drive have been yellow-tagged after seawalls were damaged, according to the city.

And Laguna Beach isn't alone.

In nearby Dana Point, the city declared a local emergency Wednesday afternoon after a home off Beach Road was nearly swept away by heavy surf. Eight more homes remained red-tagged and seven yellow-tagged because of damage from the waves and high tides that slammed the coast over the last several days.

Farther north in Malibu, 31 properties were red-tagged after a sinkhole opened up in the driveway of actor Nicolas Cage's property on Tuesday.

The damage highlights how quickly powerful waves can reshape Southern California beaches.

"The summertime storms have been fairly excessive this year, which has impacted those beaches that are directed toward the south," said John Warrick, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "This coming winter, we're expecting the storms in the North Pacific to cause all the challenges.

"And so generally in El Niño, those storms off the North Pacific are larger than normal, and so, by all means, we most likely will be seeing different beaches impacted this winter than we're seeing this summer."

Warrick says beaches like Aliso, the Wedge in Newport Beach and Zuma Beach in Malibu will likely get a break this winter and that at least some of the sand gone will likely return.

Caltrans contractors worked this weekend to prepare the roughly 360-foot long crack for brutal King Tides expected to last through Thursday.

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Caltrans crews worked through the weekend to protect a large crack beneath Pacific Coast Highway near Laguna Beach as powerful king tides threatened to the stability of the coastal bluff.

The fracture, first discovered in early October near El Morro, measures approximately 360 feet long and 2 feet wide, according to Caltrans.

The agency secured $4 million in emergency funding last week to stabilize the hillside and protect the highway, though the final repair cost remains uncertain.

On Friday, video posted to Facebook by photographer Greg Viviani showed contractors and Caltrans crews transporting truckloads of sand down the steep bluff, filling protective barriers and working around incoming waves.

"They're bringing dump trucks full of sand, they're dumping it in the staging area, then they're transporting it down to the bottom and filling up these huge, massive sandbags," Viviani said.

Crews have a limited window of time to work.

"They have to load the heavy equipment in and out with a crane, so they have that big crane hanging over the edge of the cliff, and they only have a certain window of time to work before and after high tide," Viviani added. "There's only a limited amount of time that they're able to actually work."

Caltrans spokesperson Christianne Smith said coastal erosion and changing ocean conditions have complicated the emergency repairs.

"We're dealing with a perfect storm of conditions, including coastal erosion, changing ocean conditions like the Kelvin wave and the potential impacts of El Niño — so these factors all add to the challenges of protecting Coast Highway," Smith told Patch.

Commuters traveling along Pacific Coast Highway have noticed the full-lane closure on the roadway near El Morro, along with the massive crane and dozens of Caltrans workers at the site daily.

According to Smith, crews have been battling strong tides and the steep hillside daily to ensure Phase 1 of the $4 million repair project goes as planned.

As of Monday, Smith said Phase 1 of the plan, which included the plastic tarp barrier and sand barriers, had been completed.

During Phase 2, contractors will only be able to work during low tide to install a buttress at the bottom of the slope and fill it with rocks to slow wave energy and cliffside erosion.

"We're awaiting authorization from California State Parks and the California Coastal Commission to proceed with the next steps of Phase 2," Smith said.

The 360-foot-long crack has not widened as crews continue reinforcing the damaged hillside, according to Caltrans.

According to Caltrans, the plastic sheeting placed over the crack before the rain served its purpose in protecting the crack from the elements last weekend.

Additionally, Smith told Patch that Caltrans was seeing positive results from repositioning a protective sand barrier closer to the base of the crack in order to soak up some of the force from the powerful King Tides.

"They're continuing to build [the barriers] up at least three layers high," Smith said. "So that the protective barrier reaches around 12 feet."

While Phase 2 of the repair plan is expected to start within the week, Phase 3 is less certain.

"Caltrans is working closely with California State Parks to develop a long-term stabilization approach to ensure roadway protection by drawing on geotechnical data and lessons learned from similar emergency repairs," Caltrans said in a news release.

Smith told SFGATE that $4 million in emergency funding had been approved, but the project scope is still being assessed.

"As project plans are still evolving, the full cost of the project has not yet been established," Smith said.

A similar situation unfolded just a few years back, when storm and wildfire damage compromised the very same road over 300 miles north of Laguna Beach.

Landslides in Big Sur have infamously shut down Highway 1 for years at a time. Portions of the coastal highway teeter hundreds of feet above the rocky coast, and Caltrans officials deemed a 90-mile stretch of the road unsafe after a 2023 landslide was followed a year later by a cliff collapse that took out a lane near Rocky Creek Bridge.

Stabilization and repair work took years, hampering access to coastal tourist towns. Ultimately, Caltrans placed steel and concrete along the cliff to shore up the highway, allowing it to reopen in January of this year. The upcoming El Nino winter is expected to, once again, test the stability of the cliffside highway.

When the crack was originally spotted early October, Caltrans officials spurred into action, and one southbound lane of PCH was closed between El Morro Canyon and Irvine Cove.

Weeks later, the closure was expanded to include the entire southbound side of the highway.

While Caltrans is avoiding a full road closure, Smith said traffic will likely remain limited to the single northbound lane for the foreseeable future.

To monitor traffic and receive real-time updates regarding Pacific Coast Highway closures, residents can visit Caltrans's website.

A specific timeline for the ongoing project could not be given because of the likelihood of delays and the many factors involved in the project, Smith said.

"Forecasted high tides will delay our operations on the beach as the contractor cannot safely work when the beach is underwater," Smith said. "This is why their work schedule is based on tidal conditions."

This means that while contractors may be vigilantly working, the work will be limited to when the tide allows.

"At the moment the contractor is scheduled from noon to 10 p.m., but this will be adjusted according to changing tide levels," Smith said. "There will be no work during high tide levels on the beach."