Seal Beach Boardwalk Flooded by Heavy Surf

A faraway Gulf of Alaska storm brought trouble to Seal Beach early Friday with high tide and heavy surf flooding the city’s boardwalk.

City and fire crews moved in later in the day, bulldozing trenches to drain away pooled water that flooded parts of the walk shortly after midnight, Seal Beach police said. No homes were damaged.

A heavy surf warning remained in effect Friday, and unusually high tides and ocean swell are expected to peak at noon today, said Gary Layman, spokesman for Orange County Fire Authority.

“This is a wake-up call for residents to put out sandbags in front of their houses,” Seal Beach Sgt. Tim Olson said.

The city’s coastline has severely eroded in recent years, increasing the risk of flooding and storm damage. But despite the heavy surf forecast, the berm protecting Seal Beach homes from flooding will not be put into place until the second week of November, Olson said.

Oceanfront homes were swamped in 1997 when El Nino-driven rains arrived at high tide with crests as high as 20 feet, causing serious damage to three houses and minor damage to 45 others as water gushed through garages and patios.

It is still early in the season for flooding. Usually it begins no sooner than Thanksgiving, said Seal Beach lifeguard Jason Shook. Lifeguards are not expecting any more flooding this weekend.

A few miles down the coast, Huntington Beach was largely unaffected by the high surf. “We’re a little more elevated than Seal Beach,” said Huntington Beach lifeguard Lt. Kyle Lindo. “Seal Beach is more prone to flooding.”

The flooding didn’t surprise Seal Beach lifeguards who, hours in advance, were alerted by their weather forecaster. “He called from Hawaii to tell us, ‘Hey, there’s some big waves on the way--get ready,’ ” Shook said. “He said there would be flooding, and he was right on the money.”