By Sara Hall | NB Indy
A storm wreaked havoc on Newport Beach this week, causing damage throughout the city.
Houses and business lost power, streets were flooded and mudslides dirtied the streets.
According to the city, 5 inches of rain had been dumped on Newport Beach as of Wednesday afternoon, accompanied by strong winds.
To add to the mayhem, the Wednesday morning tide, at 8 feet 1 inch, was the highest since 2005, said the city’s Municipal Operations Director Mark Harmon.
“It was expected,” Harmon said. “We knew we were going to have a high tide and the storm was coming. … We had crews out at 4 a.m. with pumps and sandbags on the Peninsula and Balboa Island… The pumps were taxed to the limit.”
The city crews were pumping the water out of the storm drains and back over the seawall, he said.
Despite the effort, water flooded the Fun Zone on the Peninsula, Harmon said, and came over the seawall at some locations on Balboa Island.
“Thankfully, we’ve had no reports of private property damage, of water getting into homes,” he said.
According to the city, the fire department has responded to over 50 service calls related to the severe rain and wind. The police department also reported an increase at their dispatch center and responded to numerous traffic accidents due to the rain.
There was “considerable street flooding,” said Harmon, citing the Balboa Pier parking lot and nearby streets and several intersections on Balboa Blvd.
The wind on Tuesday night downed 20 trees, Harmon said, with one tree clipping the roof of a house and knocking some shingles loose.
Firefighters were called to several residences for flooding, Shultz wrote, including one home on Goldenrod where water had entered the house.
Flooding has occurred through out the city in many low-lying areas due to the heavy ran and high tide.
Newport Beach residents can pick up free sandbags at the city’s corporation yard at 592 Superior Ave. between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Sandbags can also be picked up at all Newport Beach fire stations after 3:30 p.m.
Just before midnight on Tuesday, firefighters dug a trench to prevent water from entering a home on Deerwood Lane after the outdoor drains were clogged. Firefighters also assisted in clearing a downed 70-foot tree at Santiago and Mariners drives.
There were also approximately five calls for service for electrical issues resulting from power outages or leaking water or malfunctioning alarms due to water leaking into the alarms and causing them to fail.
The storm and high tide also knocked over and destroyed at least two lifeguard stations, Harmon said.
“It was just unbelievable,” Harmon said about the waves were cresting over the Newport Pier.
“We lost a good portion of beach,” Harmon said. “There’s a 5-foot drop-off. It washed away the sand.”
Some of the sand will come back naturally at the beach, he said. The city will assess in a few weeks to see if they need to do any replenishment.
There will also be a lot of debris coming out of the Santa Ana River mouth, Harmon added, and city workers expect to be dealing with that over the next several days.
