Storm-Driven Surf Crashes Coastline
Posted on: Sunday, 6 January 2008, 21:00 CST
By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.
Jan. 6--Multimedia
--View a slideshow --How have you been affected by the storm? Submit your photos
The winds were down but the seas were up Saturday as the worst of a massive winter storm rolled over Monterey County, leaving streets full of trash and many areas without electrical power since Friday.
Saturday's storm brought an additional .45 inches of rain to the Monterey and Salinas areas with a total since the storm began Thursday night of 2.26 inches in Monterey, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tentinger.
Monterey Bay experienced seas up to 32 feet. Wind gusts reached 35 mph at Monterey Peninsula Airport.
High waves crashing against Pacific Grove's seawall caused city officials to close Ocean View Boulevard to traffic. Carmel River Lagoon was flooded up to the Carmel River State Beach parking lot, with water in the Carmel River flowing in from the east and ocean waves breaking over the sandbar from the west.
Waves battered the windows of El Torito Restaurant on Cannery Row on Saturday, according to Monterey city spokeswoman Ann McGrath, causing the building to be temporarily "red-tagged" until the waves subsided.
More than 20 homes around Carmel Lagoon were evacuated between 5 and 6 a.m. Saturday, county spokeswoman Maia Carroll said, and the Red Cross is assisting some of the approximately 30 people who left their homes with finding shelter.
Powerful surf driven by the storm breached the lagoon, sending wave surges and small boulders onto the streets close to the lagoon and submerging the water elevation gauge at the
lagoon, which tops at 11 feet, she said.
County environmental health officers are in the area testing the water for potential sewage contamination, Carroll said, and county Public Works and Parks department staff are also on the scene.
The outage shut down pumps to a California American Water storage tank in the Carmel Valley Village area, causing it to drain, Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie said. As a result, the company issued a "boil water" warning to village residents in the old airport area until water test results come back from the laboratory to determine if the water became contaminated.
Bowie also noted that at times of prolonged power outages, the water company's ability to pump water is impaired.
"Right now we're at 75 percent capacity," Bowie said, adding that the company has been able to meet customer demand.
Cal Am is asking customers to limit their water use to indoor necessities only, she said, and to turn off automatic sprinkler systems during the winter months.
Cal Am's San Clemente and Los Padres dams have begun to spill over since the storm began, Bowie said.
City streets throughout the Peninsula were littered with leaves, bark, branches and fallen tree trunks blown down by the storm. Monterey had 50 trees blown down by the storm, McGrath said, of which 35 had been cleared away by Saturday afternoon.
The falling trees took powerlines down with them, shutting off electricity to thousands of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers.
As of 8 p.m. Saturday, 28,600 Peninsula customers and 27,065 Santa Cruz County customers were without power, according to PG&E, with less than 100 customers out elsewhere in the county.
The utility company has hired freelance contract crews from throughout the state and outside the state to help its regular repair and maintenance force bring power back on, PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith said.
Systemwide, from Bakersfield to the Oregon border, 1.7 million customers have lost power since the storm began, he said.
Power had been restored to about 765,000 customers by Saturday afternoon, Smith said, but additional rain and wind could bring down more trees and cause more blackouts, even in areas where the lights went back on.
The repair effort hasn't gone fast enough to please some customers.
Hacienda Carmel resident Magdalena Orsua said Saturday evening that the senior citizen housing complex had been without electricity since 8:30 a.m. Friday after a toppling tree broke its power lines.
An emergency generator is powering the main clubhouse, she said, but not the individual residences.
Smith said PG&E does make it a priority to send crews to fix power problems at retirement homes or communities. "We have been so bombarded in Monterey County," he said, answering calls from more than 34,000 customers during the storm.
City and county emergency service workers reported that most of Saturday's activity consisted of cleaning up debris and making repairs, particularly in the hard-hit Carmel and Pebble Beach areas, rather than responding to new crises.
The weather did not affect operations at Monterey Peninsula Airport, where airlines were able to maintain flight schedules.
A slight chance of showers remains in sight today, Tentinger said, and the Central Coast could see scattered rain showers through the coming week, with temperatures in the 50s by day and 40s at night.
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@montereyherald.com.
2.26
Inches of rain in Monterey since storm began Thursday night
35
Speed (mph) of wind gusts at Monterey Peninsula Airport
Storm by the numbers 32 Height in feet of biggest waves in Monterey Bay 1.7M Number of PG&E customers from Bakersfield to Oregon who lost power See our Web site for a slide show of the damaged caused by the first storm of 2008. Upload your storm pictures to our Web site, and look for photos submitted by other readers. ------
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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)
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