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Officials monitor coastal Orange County during storm
Orange County Parks Ranger Bill Reiter, right, and a colleague monitor rising surf along Sunset Beach on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010.
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Adolfo Guzman-Lopez/KPCC
)
Coastal, low-lying areas such as Sunset Beach are a source of concern for Orange County officials.
A few feet from the eroding beach, OC Parks ranger Bill Reiter talked about the source of concern. "Some very heavy surf, breaking up, it’s starting to knock down, take some of the beach with it, with a little bit of a two food drop off in the sand here, right now, we’re probably looking at about eight foot swells and it’s supposed to get bigger according to the weather forecast."
In previous years the confluence of storms and unusually high tides along Pacific Coast Highway in Sunset Beach has led to flood damage to homes and businesses. This week’s high tides aren’t expected to be larger than usual. Officials are playing it safe though. Sandbags and sand, they said, are available at the local fire station.
Greg Griffin, president of the Sunset Beach Community Association, said the coastal Orange County community suffers when all three elements are severe. One year, Griffin said, flooding didn’t deter residents from finding alternate transportation. "You could kayak right on PCH in the fast lane. In years past, I think it was 1983, there was a swell from the ocean side, that flooded a lot of Sunset, in fact, my house was built after that time but the furnace does hang from the ceiling and they took that into account."
Griffin said yearly costs to clean up and prevent storm damage are a factor as his community has begun an effort to become an incorporated city.
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