The Columns Before Storm

Even as meteorologists grimly predict that this winter could be one of the worst on record, workers began a half-million-dollar project to shore up one of the city’s more vulnerable landmarks--the Ventura Pier.

Rather than delaying repairs, city officials say predictions that El Nino weather conditions are likely to thrash the California coast make immediate pier repairs all the more urgent.

“I’d be really concerned if we knew the El Nino was coming . . . and we didn’t do everything we could to give our pier at least a fighting chance,” Councilman Jim Friedman said.

Added Councilman Jim Monahan: “We need to get this part done before the El Nino or we will lose the rest of it.” Workers began a three-month, $500,000 project Monday to strengthen the now 1,523-foot Ventura Pier before the winter storm season.

During the first phase of the project--which will last about one month--Cushman Construction of Santa Barbara will replace about 30 deteriorating piles. Then the company will brace the existing pier with steel pipes.

On Tuesday afternoon, workers wrapped the 70-foot-long piles in sheaths of black plastic to protect the wood from further nibbling by sea borers, sea creatures that burrow into wood. The $1,500 poles--made from the tall, straight trunks of Oregon Douglas firs--were then hammered into the ocean floor using a huge crane.

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The wooden pier swayed as the giant hammer thudded against the piles, demonstrating the flexibility that is both the charm and the bane of piers not made of concrete or steel. The pier was renovated in 1993 for $3.5 million. It had just opened in 1995 after a $500,000 reconstruction caused by storms in January 1994 when powerful winter waves washed away 425 feet of the 1,958-foot-long wooden structure.

Now, some fear, that history may repeat itself this winter.

“I think that the pier people should definitely be on the alert,” said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer with Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “If we get into El Nino mode, the piers will definitely be battered.”

And scientists around the country say signs of El Nino conditions are already evident.

The National Weather Service has issued an El Nino alert, warning of upcoming storm conditions. Powerful storms are already brewing in South America. And local fishermen have reeled in exotic fish off the California coast that normally stay in warmer, more tropical waters.

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El Nino, Spanish for “the child,” is named after the Christ child, because it usually arrives in December. It is the name given to the interplay between warm Pacific currents off South America and changes in atmospheric temperature, wave patterns and rain levels along the West Coast of the United States.

Basing its predictions on such small details as a rise of 2 degrees Celsius in the temperature of the typically chilly central Pacific surface waters, the federal government said that this year’s anticipated El Nino storms could rival those that pummeled the California Coast in 1982 and 1983.

Those storms--described at the time as “the event of the century”--were blamed for $265 million worth of damage in California, 14 deaths, and the evacuation of 15,000 people.

But City Engineer Rick Raives said no thought has been given to postponing the pier-strengthening in light of the dire El Nino predictions.

“Whether or not there is an El Nino prediction, or any other prediction for the weather, we’re going to be in better shape with a braced pier than without one,” Raives said.

But the unfortunate timing is enough to suggest that the pier is jinxed.

“I don’t think it is cursed,” Friedman said. “But I think it definitely has a sordid history that goes all the way back to 1872.”

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A boat once crashed into the pier, splitting it in half. Later, the pier caught on fire. And parts of the pier have been washed away numerous times.

“Let’s just say the pier has had a colorful history,” Friedman said. “And with El Nino allegedly on its way, we haven’t seen the end of its colorful history yet.”

Brian Brennan, vice president of Pier into the Future, a group that raises funds for pier repair, said part of the problem is simply where the pier is situated. Its location makes it especially susceptible to western swells.

“It’s more geography than the Gods being angry with us,” he said.

But Jon Moore, an Irvine-based pier consultant working for the city of Ventura, thinks this could be a turning point.

He tells the story of George Proctor, a wharf bookkeeper, who was washed away with part of the pier in a fierce winter storm in 1926. His body was never found.

“Maybe it’s Proctor’s ghost that needs to be placated,” he said. “Maybe the bracing job will be what will put him to rest forever.”

Assuming the pier doesn’t suffer any further damage this winter, reconstruction of the missing portion should begin in April 1998.