Houses Flooded At Seal Beach High Tide

SEAL BEACH – High waves, riding atop the morning’s high tide, caused street flooding in low-lying areas of beaches in northern Orange County and Malibu, and overtopped water barriers placed in doorways of oceanfront homes in Seal Beach.

Large pumps were brought to Seal Beach at midday to drain a pond of salt water that flowed into some beachfront houses on Seal Walk, south of the pier, during the morning’s high tide, said Seal Beach police Sgt. Steve Bowles.

“The berm stayed intact, but the water crept up under the pier and flowed south,” he said. “It may have gotten into some houses, sadly.”

Beach residents there are used to standing water on the sand during winter storms, and employ doorway barricades to keep water out of houses on the sand. Those were overtopped by water driven ashore by 10-foot waves, atop a moderate high tide, Bowles said.

“Some cars had salt water up halfway up their sides,” he said.

One town to the south, in Sunset Beach, saltwater flowed over sand dunes and onto the lanes of Pacific Coast Highway at about 8:30 a.m., and traffic was “driving through the surf,” according to reports phoned in to the California Highway Patrol.

A two-mile section of Highway 1 was closed to traffic, between Anderson Street at the north end of Sunset Beach, and Warner Avenue at the southern end of the small town, the CHP said.

Caltrans crews barricaded the roadway. No homes or businesses were flooded.

A moderate high tide of 3.4 feet above average sea level washed ashore along the Southern California coast at 8:55 a.m. The entire area remained under a high surf warning all weekend, with sets of waves 7-10 feet high predicted.

In Malibu, high tide water flowed around temporary sand berms and through a cement sea wall into the parking lot at Zuma Beach. Although some seaweed and other debris needed to be cleaned up, lifeguard officials said there was no damage.

Fire dispatchers said no property damage was reported at Malibu, even though waves were cresting mere inches below overhanging balconies and homes. A series of heavy storms this winter has severely eroded sand on several beaches, prompting a multimillion-dollar emergency rock wall installation in front of celebrities’ homes on Broad Beach, near Trancas.