Seal Beach staff will provide the City Council with a report on the impact on the city of last weeks storm at the Sept. 8 council meeting.
Meanwhile, repair work that was already scheduled for the city’s iconic pier will also include repairs to storm damage.
It has been widely reported that the storm caused flooding of several homes. However, Mayor Ellery Deaton said it was her understanding that one residence was damaged.
She said the community would need to wait until staff provides the after-storm report.
Last week. Hurricane Marie, located off the coast of Mexico, sent unusually heavy wave activity directly at the Southern California coast.
A harbor patrol boat crew from Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach rescued a local surfer during extremely heavy wave conditions off the coast on Wednesday, Aug. 27, according to Greg Smith, the NWS public affairs officer.
As a result of the storm, an estimated 25 to 30 feet of the east breakwater protecting Anaheim Bay was washed away according to the Navy base’s Facebook page.
The last of the summer concerts was cancelled Wednesday.
Deaton described the storm in a recent email to her District One constituents.
She said Tuesday night, Aug. 26, the storm surf was forecast to be from 8 to 10 feet. Then 12-14 feet waves rolled in.
“These larger waves combined with a 5.4’ high tide at 10:54pm sent water down Seal Way. Orange County Fire sand bagged all the entrances to the sidewalk, including private property gates to protect the homes along Seal Way,” Deaton wrote
“The Police Department cleared the pier to protect the public as the surf pounded the pier unrelentingly,” Deaton wrote.
The city put up a sand berm, although some residents have questioned why the city did not put up the berm before the storm.
The pier was also closed.
Deaton said a structural analysis of the pier was performed Friday, Aug. 29. At that time, city officials decided to open 3/4 of the pier up to the construction gate.
According to Public Works Director Sean Crumby, the city performs a structural analysis of the pier every five years. The analysis was last performed in 2008. “High severity” needs were repaired at that time.
Crumby said “medium severity” repairs were scheduled to begin Tuesday, Sept. 2. He said staff prefers to work on the beach area of the city between Labor Day and November.
According to Crumby, damage from the storm made it necessary to perform repairs in addition to the work that was already scheduled. He said that, fortunately, the city could add the necessary repairs to the existing project.
He said city officials would meet with the contractor to discuss the additional work and how it gets done.
Some residents believe the city should have been more proactive in taking steps such as putting up the berm.
Deaton said the berm decision would have been made by Lifeguards and Public Works personnel, etc. Deaton said they were the professionals.
Deaton also said the decision to put up the berm was made when the storm became an anomaly and changed course.
City Manager Jill Ingram said: “With regard to any additional details on the city’s response to this abnormal event, city staff is in the process of preparing a de-brief on the unified command response to this week’s atypical high surf/high tide event.”
On Friday, Aug. 29, Deaton said that the real story was that the boardwalk was cleaned up.
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