‘King tides’ bring 2nd day of minor flooding to California beach city
By Associated Press,
Published: December 13
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — King
tides swelled again Friday along the Southern California coast but only
minor flooding was reported in a few areas.
Television news reports showed ankle-deep water on some streets
in the Sunset Beach area near Huntington Harbour shortly after a
morning high tide of over 7 feet.
No homes were flooded and there were no major traffic tie-ups,
even though water spilling from the harbor submerged one lane of the
Pacific Coast Highway, a major Orange County coastal route.
Newport
Beach also had some roadway flooding on Friday, but no damage to homes,
and the tidal flow from the bay was lower, city spokeswoman Tara
Finnigan said.
“It peaked at around 8 feet,” she said. “Yesterday
it peaked here at about 8 feet, 4 inches ... Things are moving in the
right direction.”
The highest tide of the year struck California on Thursday morning but proved to be more of a nuisance than a threat.
Bruce DuAmarell, an 18-year Sunset Beach resident, said he got a call at work from an alarmed neighbor and came home.
“There were four to five inches in my garage,” he said, as he took a
break from sweeping water onto the street. “It came up over the seawall
and literally filled up the harbor.”
DuAmarell said he lost a vacuum cleaner and some Christmas presents for his children, but otherwise was unscathed.
The
worst damage Thursday was just north of San Francisco, where the tide
swamped a commuter parking lot in Marin City and seeped into dozens of
cars.
King tides occur several times a year when the Earth, moon
and sun align in a way that increases gravitational pull on oceans,
raising water levels several feet above normal high tides. The
non-scientific term also refers to extremely low tides.
Residents of Sunset Beach had expected Thursday’s flooding but that didn’t keep 13-year resident Fred Grether out of trouble.
He
tried to drive his 2004 Porsche to a car wash to rinse off the salt
water after the flooding reached the rims and undercarriage. But driving
to the car wash did more damage than staying put, he said as a tow
truck prepared to haul his car to the shop.
“I didn’t realize how
deep it was at the intersection and as soon as I got to the
intersection, I heard this frizzling noise and my car alarm started
going off and I realized that I had burned out the electrical system on
my car,” he said.
“Now I’m off to my local mechanic today about
me doing something very, very stupid,” said Grether, who’s seen flooding
three times.
The tide at Marin City reached 7 feet, slightly
higher than during last December’s king tides, which prompted the
California Highway Patrol to temporarily close a highway connector ramp
due to roadway flooding midmorning.
The tides reached over 10 feet in Redwood City, a bit above predicted levels, the National Weather Service said.
The
event provided organizers of the California King Tides Initiative an
opportunity to get California residents thinking about and preparing for
the future.
The 3-year-old initiative, sponsored by government
and nonprofit groups, enlists camera-toting volunteers to photograph the
King Tides as an illustration of what low-lying coastal areas could
look like if predicted sea level rises caused by climate change come to
pass.
___
Leff reported from San Francisco. Los Angeles science writer Alicia Chang contributed to this report.
end quote from:
King tides' bring 2nd day of minor flooding to California beach city
Just like High Tides and higher ocean levels in general made Hurricane Sandy much worse than anything seen in the Last Century or so for the Northeast, in the same way even without a large storm or Hurricane the King Tides brought minor Flooding to Huntington Beach, California and other parts of California even in the San Francisco Bay Area.
TIME
