Santa Cruz Wharf collapses during repair project, 3 rescued
The end of the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf fell into the ocean on Monday at around 12:44 p.m.
The end of the wharf had previously been damaged by winter storms. The wharf collapsed right in the middle of a $4 million project to fix the damages from previous storms.
In all, about 150 feet at the end of the wharf was destroyed, officials said. This includes the Dolphin Restaurant and a restroom.
Santa Cruz police confirmed with KSBW 8 that three people were on the wharf when it collapsed. Two of them had to be rescued, and the last person got out of the water on their own.
Minor injuries were reported. The wharf was promptly evacuated.
"We had our engineer, our engineering team and our wharf crew on-site monitoring minute by minute," said a city official Matt Huffaker. "We made the decision that based on our forecasting models, it would be safe to do so today with constant monitoring."
The Santa Cruz Harbor is closed until further notice as is the wharf. Police say Main Beach and Cowell's Beach are also closed. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk also said they will close for the rest of the day out of caution.
The city cited "extensive damage caused by storm surge. Though some landside businesses are open, access and parking may be severely limited."
The current conditions are:
- docks are damaged in some areas and unstable
- vessels are still in danger of sinking
- surge conditions continue to occur.
The full extent of the damages is unknown at this time. The wharf will remain closed until further notice.
A crane and skid steer also fell into the ocean. The bathrooms at the end of the wharf also collapsed into the water and ended up on Seabright Beach.
"We hear the pier cracking, and it was swinging a lot," said Landon Ky, a witness. "So my friend actually noticed that, but we kind of waved it off, and then probably within the next five minutes, the whole thing crashed into the water."
Officials say they expect the weather to get worse and that there will be more damage done to the wharf.
Stay with KSBW 8 for more details.
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