The Sun Comes Out and So Do Big Crowds to County’s Beaches
More than 220,000 people flocked to beaches in Orange County during the final day of the holiday weekend, which saw sunshine after an overcast Saturday and Sunday.
“The sun came out around 10:30 this morning and it was a beautiful sight,” said Duncan McCulloch, a lifeguard supervisor at Bolsa Chica State Beach. “Shortly after that, I saw a trail of cars coming into the parking lot.”
The largest crowds were at Newport Beach, which drew about 90,000 people, and at Huntington Beach, which drew more than 93,000 people to its three beaches.
The reopening of the Seal Beach Pier last weekend also contributed to the crowd of about 12,000 there. The pier closed last year after it was damaged in a fire.
Beach-goers were drawn to the waves by a combination of sunny weather and water warmed to about 63 degrees, lifeguards said. More than 200 people had to be rescued, most of them caught in mild rip currents, lifeguards said.
The two most serious injuries occurred at Huntington State Beach. One man fainted while riding on a bike path and another man may have suffered a broken neck when diving into shallow water. Both men were hospitalized, lifeguard Bill Pfeiffer said.
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