OC Residents Prepare For 2nd Wave Of King Tides, Possible Flooding
LONG BEACH and ORANGE COUNTY (AP/CBSLA.com) — The tide is high, and it's holding on.
Some Long Beach and O.C. residents are preparing for another day of ankle-deep seawater in low-lying coastal communities as unusually high "king tides" pulled the Pacific farther ashore than normal Thursday.
KCAL9's Michelle Gile reports there was a record tide of 8.4 feet Thursday morning in Newport Harbor.
Tides had been expected to reach levels of 7.3 feet - which would be the highest since 2008.
Occurring several times a year, king tides happen when the Earth, moon and sun align in a way that increases gravitational pull on the Earth's oceans, raising water levels several feet above normal high tides. The non-scientific term also refers to extremely low tides.
There was at least one report of flooding for about a mile along the 16000 block of Pacific Coast Highway and Broadway in Huntington Beach, according to Huntington Beach Fire Department spokesman Bob Culhane.
"Due to an excessively high tide that's going on right now, we have some water that has risen to the point that it's closed down the northbound lanes of PCH...up to the north end of the city," Culhane said. "There have been some businesses that have been affected, but there have been no trapped people, no problems with vehicles."
In Newport Beach, flooding slowed down drivers at the intersection of 26th and Balboa, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
Long Beach Fire spokesman Matt Dobberpohl told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO the city is encouraging residents near the coastline to prepare for possible flooding.
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"Fortunately the weather's south of us today, so that's not gonna contribute to it, we're not anticipating any real flooding today, but we do have a plan in place should any occur," Dobberpohl said.
Four city crews will be conducting inspections and maintenance work to ensure that catch basins in the Naples area have been cleaned and all pump stations are functioning.
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 predictions about the Earth's climate come to pass.
As of Thursday afternoon, about 100 new snapshots had been uploaded to the photo-sharing project, coordinator Heidi Nuttles said.
"It's definitely very high tides this year, and we just encourage people to use this opportunity to go out, take pictures and reflect what this means for our shoreline and the fact that's its constantly changing even today, and how that might affect how we think about sea level rise in the future," Nuttles said.
People should avoid swimming in the ocean and bays during and within 72 hours of a storm, and should always avoid swimming in areas where there might be rip currents.
Tips on how to prepare an evacuation and communications plan are available at Ready.gov.
(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc.and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
