Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach remained closed Tuesday, Feb. 6, sending commuters and travelers to alternative routes due to flooding during a storm that continued to linger over the region, dumping heavy rain at times.
The area of Seapoint Street to Warner Avenue was first closed at 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, according to Christine Knadler, Caltrans public information officer for District 12, which is Orange County.
“We haven’t been able to reopen it for safety reasons,” Knadler said.
It was the only major roadway closed as of Tuesday late afternoon, with some smaller closures elsewhere mostly from drainage issues, she said. “We’re working on those pretty quickly.”
The flooding along Pacific Coast Highway – a heavily used roadway – stems from the wetlands area, with seawater flooding up onto the road.
“We’ll reopen it as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Knadler said.
Pacific Coast Highway is a stretch that sees 20,000 to 25,000 motorists daily and the flooding is an issue every time it rains, a significant impact for people who use the major thoroughfare, said Huntington Beach city public information officer Jennifer Carey.
“The rainfall doesn’t have anywhere to go, there’s not a high enough seawall to block the Bolsa Chica Wetlands from overflowing,” she said. “The reality is, anytime there is any sort of rain, we just anticipate for that to be closed.”
There were no other major issues throughout the city, she said, other than a street closure on southbound traffic that started Monday afternoon due to flooding on Magnolia Street just south of Edison High School. The street was expected to reopen sometime Tuesday afternoon.
Newport Beach also didn’t have any major issues, other than pump crews addressing some minor pooling spots as they arose, said Newport Beach spokesperson John Pope.
A concrete wall along the Prima Deshecha Flood Control Channel just north of Calle Grande Vista buckled due to slipping debris in San Clemente, according to Councilmember Chris Duncan.
To repair the wall and restore proper flow in the channel, staff was set to meet with consultants and a local contractor Wednesday morning, he said.
Meanwhile, voluntary evacuation warnings were in place through the day for Silverado, Williams, Modjeska and Trabuco canyons, according to Shannon Widor, OC Public Works spokesperson.
Road and hillside conditions in the unincorporated canyon areas held up well as the rain storms eased up early evening, he said.
Local residents prepared for the rain by using sandbags and wattles to handle storm water, while OCPW crews cleared mud and rocks from roadsides and culverts so storm water doesn’t back-up.
“While there was a voluntary evacuation and flood watch in place, we didn’t see any significant issues,” he said, noting there were several areas of ponding water, rocks and thin layers of mud across canyon roadways.
“Our crews had heavy equipment already staged in the canyons, so we were able to keep roads open for residents, service providers and emergency responders,” he said, noting crews would still be on-call through the evening in case any issues were reported.
“We fared very well throughout this storm,” he said. .
OC Public Works was continuing to monitor any ground movement in the canyons and residents should keep sandbags in place until notified otherwise, OC Public Works warned in a public advisory.
In Dana Point, the city’s public works crews plan to close Coast Highway between Palisades and Camino Capistrano to all traffic on Thursday, Feb. 8, to clear locations where space behind the concrete barrier filled up with debris, a barrier to avoid having any end up on the roadway shoulder.
“Intermittent closures may occur before then and work could continue into Friday,” said Matt Sinacori, the city’s director of Public Works and City Engineer. “We encourage everyone to use caution when driving as weather conditions are constantly changing. We also thank everyone for their support and understanding. It is Dana Point’s goal to keep everyone safe on the road.”
In Lake Forest, several fields and a few low-lying parks had been closed since Monday due to the heavy rainfall. Some parks in the city are specifically designed to function as retention basins during such weather events, which results in pooling across some of these fields, said spokesperson Jonathan Volzke.
“Today’s rain is certainly more intense than anything we’ve seen in a while, but our storm drains seem to be doing their jobs,” said Volzke. “None of our streets are closed. We do have public works folks out patrolling and so far, so good.”
The Lake Forest Golf Course had to close its driving range because it serves as a retention basin for the city, resulting in significant water accumulation. But, according to general manager Dave Brown, this is normal and there were even some people still playing in the rain on the regular course.
Much of Anaheim was included in Tuesday’s flash flood warning. City spokesperson Mike Lyster said the city was doing relatively well. Water could be seen building up on right lanes along roadways, but no streets were closed due to flooding.
Workers in Anaheim were out cleaning storm drains throughout the city, clearing muddy water runoff on Santa Ana Canyon Road and removing a 70-foot eucalyptus tree that fell over Anaheim Hills Road on Tuesday morning.
That tree blocked two lanes of traffic along Anaheim Hills Road near South Via Montanera. City contractors were out cutting up the tree to clear the roadway, Lyster said.
Since Sunday, Anaheim had four minor power outages reported, affecting a few hundred people. All of those power outages have been restored, Lyster said.
At the Anaheim Convention Center, the storm didn’t stop a manufacturing trade show that runs through Thursday from beginning.
