Burst Pipe and Big Tide Flood Newport Street : Deluge: Water flows down River Avenue as residents watch helplessly. Several parked cars suffer the most damage.

To the dismay of many residents, River Avenue lived up to its name early Sunday.

Starting about 6 a.m., inhabitants watched helplessly as rapidly rising waters from a broken water main and an unusually high ocean tide flooded several parked cars and possibly undermined the foundations of some of the homes, according to witnesses and authorities.

The broken pipe cut off all water to some residents for as long as 10 hours, witnesses said, and city crews dug up the pavement to isolate the damaged pipe.

“It was like a river in front of my house,” said Tony Nigro, who saw the water reach the front porch of his residence at 4106 River Ave. by 7 a.m.

Sgt. Doug Thomas of the Newport Beach Police Department said an eight-inch broken water main and the high tide from a channel feeding from Newport Bay combined to cause the problems on River Avenue at 41st and 42nd streets.

Because of the high tides, the storm drains were blocked and there was no place for the water to go, residents said.

River Avenue is two blocks from the Pacific Ocean and many of the houses on the street back up to a channel that winds around nearby Newport Island to the bay. Some of the homes, the street and the pipelines underground date back to the 1920s, residents said.

City workers late Sunday were trying to discover why the water pipe broke and determine how much damage was caused, Thomas said.

Once the water was shut off, work crews aided by water pumps, water trucks and a backhoe were forced to dig through the street, the sidewalks and the sandy soil to get to the damaged pipe, witnesses said. The crews worked into the night Sunday attempting to repair the pipe and clean up the mess, residents said.

The flood was first discovered just after 6 a.m.

“I went out at about a quarter to seven to get my L.A. Times and I couldn’t get outside,” said Nigro, 39, a sales representative for a food manufacturer. “Besides the water, there was a ton of sand, about six feet deep in some areas.”

The cars parked on the street suffered the most damage, said one unhappy overnight visitor, Peyton Schur. He said his Mercedes Benz was worth $90,000--before the flood.

“My new Mercedes was filled with water,” said Schur, who spent the night at a friend’s house on 42nd Street only to wake up and discover the damage. Schur said he found a shut-off valve several blocks away that city workers had trouble locating.

“By the time they got the thing turned off it was after 9 in the morning. It took me all of 10 minutes to shut the water off and I don’t work for the city,” said Schur, 42, a private investigator.

Resident Boyd Roberts said he heard the commotion Sunday morning, stuck his head out his second story window and saw his two cars--a Porsche and a Honda--in a foot of water.

“The Porsche actually got about two inches of water inside the car, but at least it’s running,” said Roberts, 35, a commodities broker. “The Honda won’t start.”

Richard Polley, who has lived in his home at 4204 River Ave. since 1958, said the water was a half-inch from rushing into the house.

“We’ve had tidal problems many times before. It’s caused us to extend our seawall three feet,” said Polley, whose home backs up along the channel. “Two homes have been built in the past 10 years near the spot where the break occurred. Maybe they overburdened the line.”