Harboring Fears of the Worst : Storm: Boat owners at Portofino Cove condos in Huntington were hardest hit, officials say. The dock was carried away by flood channel currents; more than 30 vessels were pulled loose, authorities estimate.

Throughout the day Thursday, anxious boat owners visited the marinas that circle Huntington Harbour, hoping they wouldn’t find their boats damaged, sunk or carried away by the storm. But some did.

Worst hit was the boat dock of the Portofino Cove condominiums. The dock was carried away by a storm-driven current in the flood control channel, for the second time in two years.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol estimates that more than 30 boats were pulled loose when the network of slips was torn away late Wednesday afternoon.

“We’re still sorting them out,” Deputy Fred Torromeo said. “We don’t have a list yet. An unknown number are unaccounted for.”

Four of the Portofino Cove boats sank while attached to the dock, which ended up beneath the Pacific Coast Highway bridge over the channel to the ocean. The Harbor Patrol rescued 17 vessels, 13 of which were under the bridge. Another vessel was carried out to sea and was grounded on the beach at 21st Street on Sunset Beach, Torromeo said.

By Thursday afternoon, the dock and one partially submerged boat were still visible from the bridge, aground in the marsh.

One of those recovered was a 32-foot vessel owned by Portofino residents Mauri and Joan Elsner. A friend took them out to the dock, where deputies helped them clear debris from the boat and get it started. A second, smaller boat remains submerged at the dock.

Joan Elsner said it was “sad, sad, sad” to view the damage.

The seas were so rough Thursday night that Harbor Patrol boats were unable to search the ocean for missing ships.

“I still don’t believe it,” Torromeo said, recalling that the storm-swollen current was more like a raging river than a flood control channel. Within half an hour, between 4 and 4:30 p.m., the water went from placid to raging.

One witness compared it to white water on the Kern River.

As the waters rose, boat owners from Portofino Cove went to the dock to check their vessels, but they were sent back by deputies moments before the structure ripped away. As the boats were carried toward the sea, individual boats broke loose and damaged other docks and vessels, witnesses said.

Two years ago, the Portofino dock was ripped loose by storm currents, but much less damage was done as a result, deputies said. Nonetheless, the dock was rebuilt.

The problem, Torromeo said, was that “they built in a flood control channel.”

Across the water, at Huntington Harbour Marina, where debris clogged many of the slips, the damage was less devastating.

“It definitely made a mess,” said Ken Johnson, a dock worker.

Pieces of the concrete dock were torn loose, but only one or two boats were damaged, Johnson said.

Bill McNair, a Huntington Beach podiatrist, was relieved to see that his 38-foot boat, “Real Risky,” had not been damaged.

“That was surprising,” he marveled, observing a large piece of dock floating just inches from the stern.

“With all this junk in the water you won’t be moving for a while,” he said.

Boat owner John Freed of Brea, who had been at the county-owned Sunset Aquatic Marina on Wednesday afternoon, said: “We were bouncing a lot. It must have been a real nightmare last night.”