Preparedness Key in Wake of El Nino Warnings

LAGUNA BEACH —  Larry Paul remembers the force of nature he witnessed one night during the year of the El Nino in 1983.

A fierce storm had ripped through Orange County, knocking out electricity, causing widespread flooding and damage. As part of his duties as manager of the county’s coastal facilities, Paul found himself at midnight baby-sitting Aliso Pier.

“I heard this big crashing of a wave I couldn’t see,” Paul said. “Then, all of a sudden, it was dark. You couldn’t see the light at the end of the pier. I said, ‘Oh, my gosh! We lost the pier.’ A few seconds later the light reappeared. It was shaking back and forth. This giant wave had engulfed the pier and then was rolling under it.”

Vivid images of the 1982-83 storms and recent news of yet another approaching El Nino capable of producing three times the normal rainfall have sent county and city officials to their drawing boards to protect the coast.

Among preparations, local officials are:

* Ordering more than 100,000 sandbags and additional barricades and detour signs in anticipation of flooding. Plans are underway to move heavy equipment to staging areas close to known flooding hot spots. Some of these areas include Dana Point, Capistrano Beach, Bolsa Chica and the Santiago Canyon area.

* Considering large rock revetments to help protect sensitive beach and bluff areas at Salt Creek Beach and the Niguel Shores area in Dana Point and possibly building sand berms on beaches to prevent erosion and flooding of oceanfront homes at Sunset Beach, Seal Beach and portions of Newport Beach.

In addition, the county’s 320 miles of flood control channels have been upgraded and repaired, said Bill Reiter, operations manager for county public works agency.

Huntington Beach has called for a Sept. 17 meeting of officials from Orange County’s coastal cities to share ideas on emergency plans and information on what to expect from the El Nino.

Government officials throughout Orange County attended an El Nino workshop held at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla on Aug. 19.

“I went to the workshop because we are concerned about public safety,” said Seal Beach Police Capt. Gary Maiten. “We wanted to hear about the El Nino from the experts and not the rumor mill.”

As a result, city department heads and some staff members will hold a brainstorming session next week to discuss emergency strategies, Maiten said.

At the workshop, oceanographers said that water temperatures off the western coast of South America are 4 1/2 to 5 degrees Celsius higher than normal, said Nicholas E. Graham, a meteorologist with the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction at Scripps.

“We’re seeing projections at the level of the 1982-83 event, and there are certain possibilities that we may surpass that event,” Graham said.

Ecuador, Chile and other South American countries have been experiencing severe storms with high rainfall and flooding, Graham noted.

Paul and other coastal officials said that many county and municipal public works employees will be carrying tide charts this year marked for the high tides and their times. Paul said that storm surf and high tides are a dangerous combination that can cause flooding and other damage.

“It is so hard to predict that the only way is to look in history like, what happened in [1982-83] and be prepared,” Paul said. “But what’s so difficult here is the angle of the waves--which way will they be coming from? And what do you do to protect your piers? What can you do? How do you protect a pier from an onslaught of storm waves?”

In the storms of 1982-83, both Huntington Beach and Seal Beach piers suffered extensive damage. After a nasty 1987 storm took out the end of Huntington Beach Pier, it was rebuilt with concrete. Along the coast, there are two concrete piers, Huntington Beach and Aliso. Piers at Seal Beach, Newport Beach, Balboa and San Clemente are wooden structures.

“Our wooden piers recently were inspected, and the annual report said the pilings are safe with no wood rot,” said David Niederhaus, Newport Beach’s general services director.

The county has made a number of improvements in response to large storms since 1983, Reiter said, including the addition of a new communications emergency operations center that can receive weather updates with the stroke of a computer button.

“We’ve done so many things,” Reiter said, “but obviously with the kind of anticipation with this El Nino, we’re getting nervous.”