By LILLY NGUYEN, ANDREW TURNER, MATT SZABO
Hilary was the first tropical cyclone to hit California in over 84 years. She swept through coastal Orange County on Sunday, and then early Monday morning, flooding the beaches as she moved north.
The combination of early warnings, which allowed for sandbags to be placed around properties and emergency supplies to be collected, and a storm causing far greater damage elsewhere in California, has helped cities within the Daily Pilot coverage area, especially low-lying Laguna Beach. Newport Beach and Huntington Beach have escaped major damages.
Mark Moede of the National Weather Service, San Diego said that August is usually a dry month in Southern California. This tropical storm, however, has broken many rain records.
According to Orange County Public Works, Huntington Beach led the region with 2.4 inches during the storm. Costa Mesa saw 2.13 inches of rainfall, Laguna Beach received 2.01 inches and Newport Coast 1.89 inches. In August, the area is usually only a trace amount of rain.
As the floods began, Pacific Coast Highway was shut between Warner Avenue to Seapoint Street in Huntington Beach. By 11 am on Monday morning, the northbound lanes had reopened. The southbound lanes followed later that afternoon.
Jennifer Carey, Huntington Beach’s public affairs manager, said that damage to Surf City was minimal.
Carey stated, “We received reports of some downed trees and a couple calls about downed power lines.” “Nothing major. We saw some localized flooding in a few places, but nothing major. This is largely due to community members being prepared. They made sure to have sandbags around their homes to prevent flooding, and they also took into account the wind and brought items inside. Many people tried to be as prepared as possible.”
Newport Beach’s spokesman John Pope stated in a message sent on Monday that there had been no incidents of any significance either. Pope stated that while there were some isolated flooding incidents and several trees and branches downed, the storm was not out of place compared with a normal winter storm.
Staffers reviewed the storm this week for the Laguna Beach City Council and said that the Public Works Department provided over 1,000 prefilled bags to mitigate any potential impacts of the storm. Eight Nixle Alerts related to storms were sent by the communications team. Laguna Beach opened its emergency operations center at 7 am Sunday morning, when the storm, still a hurricane, was moving northward over Baja California.
Brendan Manning is the emergency operations coordinator for the city. He said that the marine safety team had moved the vulnerable towers and made sure they were secured before the storm. They had an emergency plan to shut down the beaches of the city if necessary. Out of a sense of extreme caution, they closed the Aliso Beach Parking Lots. They added marine safety personnel to prepare for large waves. We also staff floodwater response units in addition to the lifeguards on duty at the beach.
The storm water was so significant that they had to close the Thousand Steps 9th Avenue stairwell temporarily to protect the public.
Bob Whalen, the Mayor of Laguna City, thanked all those who helped mitigate tropical storms.
Whalen said to the staff, “I hope we won’t need to do it too often. But I was impressed by how well prepared you were, how much you worked, and your coordination across all departments.” I think as a whole community, we should be proud that, even though we don’t see it much, there is a great deal of work going on behind the scenes.
Meteorologist Moede says Hilary caused power outages and brought the high wind gusts predicted. However, the winds arrived much later than forecast. The initial forecasts indicated that winds in the local areas would be around 40 mph on Sunday.
On Sunday night, at Newport Pier near midnight, the wind speed was 43 mph. The National Weather Service in San Diego reported that earlier in the evening at 7 pm, the Huntington Beach Pier had gusts up to 47 mph.
Residents have expressed on social media that the storm was not as severe as reported in media. Moede explained that this was probably due to confusion with the message.
The tropical storm played out almost exactly as predicted. The message that was being sent out by social media and television to Orange County and other areas that are west of mountains was that a tropical cyclone was approaching. Moede explained that Hurricane Hilary, which could bring devastating flooding to Southern California, was on its way. “We should prepare ourselves for it,” he said. Moede said, “We sent the message that flooding would be more likely in the mountains and deserts.”
Sunday afternoon, people ventured out to the beach cities. Some to enjoy the favorable surf conditions — particularly at Newport Beach’s famous Wedge — while others wanted to observe the impact Hilary had on the local community. The residents were not concerned about what Hilary might do overnight.
Dan Barabas was in Laguna Beach visiting his family. The trip was planned over a period of months and the family were disappointed to find some businesses closed for the duration.
Barabas declared, “We won’t let this small drizzle ruin our day.” We’re a little shocked at how many places are closed because there hasn’t been much rain so far.
It is important to restore your property after damage has occurred. Natural disasters, neglect or wear-and-tear can affect the structural integrity of a building. If you are interested in knowing more about our services you can see more detail here https://ncrestoration.ca/ Professional renovations by NewCity Restoration are comprehensive and provide solutions for restoring your property.
It may include structural repairs, refinishings, historic restorations, or special techniques that restore the original functionality and beauty of the property. By engaging expert restoration services, you can ensure that the character and value of your property are maintained or enhanced. A well-executed renovation can bring back the charm and integrity of a property.
